La Rioja exceeded 70% hotel occupancy and daily spending was $40,000
According to data collected by the Tourism Economic Observatory – made up of actors from the public, private and academic sectors – the corresponding Father’s Day weekend, La Rioja reached 53% hotel occupancy with a total of 8,762 overnight stays, while this last XXL weekend occupancy reached 73%. Villa Unión, Arauco, Chilecito and Sanagasta – with the 3rd and 4th dates of the National Enduro Tournament – were the localities with the greatest influx of visitors.
Meanwhile, the Talampaya National Park maintained an average of 1,000 visits per day, being the main attraction chosen by foreign and national tourists.
As a result of the tourist movement in these last four days of rest, the province had an economic impact of $1,011,960,000.00, breaking down into an average expenditure of 60 thousand pesos per day per tourist, an average stay of 3 days and a total of 16,866 overnight stays.
“The benefits of the “Movete por La Rioja” program have been a key attraction for the arrival of visitors during these two weekends. With excellent and increasingly widespread public acceptance, the website registers thousands of visits and hundreds of invoices uploaded, which implies the accumulation of points to be exchanged until July 31, allowing us to predict a promising winter vacation,” they reported.
Regarding the XXL weekend, the president of the La Rioja Chamber of Tourism, Leopoldo “Poly” Badoul, described the extra long weekend as successful, greatly exceeding what was planned in terms of hotel occupancy. He highlighted the coordinated work between the public-private sector, highlighting that the “Movete por la Rioja” program and its benefits have been of great contribution for this weekend.
For her part, Mirna Cuevas, Secretary of Tourism of Villa Unión, stated that she had a good hotel occupancy of close to 90%, as well as nearby districts such as Pagancillo, Guandacol with full occupancy of their places. In this sense, she expressed: “happy to once again see the restaurants full, the hotels full and the local circuits with a very good level of visits such as Cañón del Triásico, Vallecito Encantado and the tourist wineries.”
Finally, the Secretary of Tourism of La Rioja, José Rosa, highlighted the work of the entire tourism sector – private and public – to continue positioning the province as a destination in northern Argentina: “having exceeded 73 percent of hotel occupancy in this difficult situation that the country is going through is very good, the promotion that we have been working on is key in making our offer visible.” He also highlighted that the implementation of the Movete por La Rioja program “has been very well received by both tourists and providers, yielding excellent results so far thanks to coordinated work between the public and private sectors from the beginning.” , said.
CAME data
During the four-day Flag Day weekend, 1.8 million tourists traveled through Argentina and spent $303,405 million on food, drinks, accommodation, transportation, recreation, and various purchases. The number of people who traveled was 20% less than the same weekend last year, which had the same number of days (4) and spent 24.3% less at real prices.
But in the final balance, celebrating the holidays on separate weekends, as happened this year, ended up being better for the activity: if the results of this weekend are added with those of the holiday last June 17, adding seven days, almost 2.6 million people went out for a walk, this is 15.3% more than in the four days that the combined weekend of 2023 lasted.
In La Rioja With a daily expenditure per tourist of $40,000, one of the strong points of the weekend passed through Sanagasta, where the Argentine Enduro Championship was held, which brought together the best motorcycling riders in the country. Other busy cities were La Rioja capital, Chilecito and Villa Unión. In Chilecito, tourists visited the Museo Molino San Francisco, an old flour mill with historical exhibits. Villa Unión offered the visitor the Talampaya canyon, famous for its rock walls up to 150 meters high, and the rock formations within the park (Gotic Cathedral and El Monje). The Coastal Corridor, the Santa Teresita hot springs and the Laguna Brava Provincial Reserve were other popular places over the weekend.
