The Chamber of Tourism of Bariloche She was the first to warn about the situation. According to the entity, the level of hotel occupancy in May and the outlook for June were not encouraging. He explained that it was only 20%.
After the good times experienced in recent times with the arrival of many tourists from abroad, especially from Chile, Brazil and Uruguay, due to the exchange advantage, for months the panorama has been different.
Added to this is the loss of purchasing power of the Argentines. It is a very small portion of society that has the possibility of thinking about allocating money to do tourism for the country.
On the other hand, those who have resources begin to do the math and find that, due to the current value of the dollar and high domestic prices, international destinations appear more attractive. Continuing with Bariloche, the most important tourist plaza for the winter season, a curious fact made the news a few weeks ago.
This season, the pass to the Cerro Catedral ski center will cost $110,000, an increase of 280% compared to last year. At that time, before the recent rise in the “blue”, it was equivalent to about $110. The comparison quickly arose with the values in other ski centers worldwide, both in Europe and the United States, and it was clear that the local price was above those abroad.
The same goes for accommodation.
3-star hotels in Bariloche, for the high season of July, cost between $1,500,000 and $2,000,000, based on a double room for seven nights, according to the Booking portal.
MDZ published this week a price comparison with other international ski centers in Europe, such as Cortina D’Ampezzo or Andorra and it showed that the values were not very different. Even cheaper for the winter of the northern hemisphere.
In the Cerro Catedral ski center, in high season, like July and August, 40% of the tourists are foreigners (mostly Brazilians) and the rest Argentinians. The estimate made by the city’s tourism entity indicates that, for the peak of the winter season, occupancy will be high. The problem is that it declines a lot outside of those very specific weeks.
According to information managed by the Association of Tourism Hotels of the Argentine Republic (AHT), which groups higher category establishments, the level of reservations for that ski center, for winter vacations, is 70%. However, the situation in other destinations is very different with a demand of only 30%, a very low level for this time.
“In some destinations there are consultations, but without specificity yet. We estimate that more about the date motorized demand will improve due to the possibility of paying in installments,” he told MDZ Gabriela Ferrucci, president of the AHT.
The board pointed out the fact that Aerolíneas Argentinas is offering a very aggressive promotion with payments in 3 or 6 interest-free installments, plus the 12-month financing that some banks are announcing. For this reason, there will be days of great expectation in the national tourism sector to see if demand responds to these incentives or the 2024 winter season will be affected by the drop in general consumption of the economy.
