Guillermo Villarreal
04/01/2021 12:36
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 04/01/2021 12:39
Already at sunset on Wednesday the first travelers began to arrive to arrive at the different destinations of the Atlantic Coast and on the morning of this Thursday that incipient movement became much more intense.
Only in Mar del Plata some 180 thousand people are expected and the controls will be the same as those applied during the summer season.
The numbers are similar to those recorded for the same weekend last year, only that time the start of the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed everything.
"Do not come," asked Mayor Guillermo Montenegro at a press conference in which a single chinstrap was not yet visible: "The time will come to enjoy the city."
An irregular summer season arrived and there was an irregular summer season with some 2.5 million tourists here, vacations with limitations, travel permits and controls that will be put into practice again: the operation against clandestine parties will continue and they will be seen again in the centers of attraction to the "celestial vests".
This is how the young people were met who could be observed during the summer months on different beaches, helping to control crowds and controlling access when the capacity of some reached its limit.
"In summer, the beaches and beach slopes were prioritized, now, since it is a weekend in April, the central point will be the corridors, the open-air places," explained a commune official.
The long weekend of Easter comes with time restrictions that this week the Buenos Aires government announced for the 110 districts that are in phase 4, among which is Mar del Plata.
Thus,
from 2 to 6 in the morning there will be no authorized recreational or commercial activities.
When the announcement was known, gastronomic and hoteliers asked to be excluded.
"It will be lethal for the sector," they
said;
his claim was not answered.
At the same time, bookings that were coming in at a good pace were put on standby when they were climbing 50%.
Positive cases of coronavirus are on the rise in the country.
In Mar del Plata, the records of the last weeks amounted to an average of one hundred cases per day.
The last part, from Wednesday night, marked an increase,
with 146 positives, there were not so many since February 25
;
there are 1914 active cases in the city.
But these four days and the desire to travel prevailed beyond statistics and restrictions and soon e-mails with requests for quotes for houses and apartments or hotel rooms fell again.
Reservations are good according to tour operators,
70 percent in the hotel industry
, which works with discount promotions that reach 30% according to the number of nights taken.
The vice president of the local Gastronomic Hotel Business Association, Eduardo Palena, predicted "a very good weekend."
Although the average was 70% and stays of 3 nights, hoteliers do not rule out that the number could grow from the arrival of spontaneous travelers.
The auctioneers trusted that for the long weekend the most chosen are the departments, mainly those that are better equipped, and that 60% of the available offer had been taken as of Wednesday.
They are good numbers of reservations that
place this weekend at the height of what was the best of the season, the carnivals
, in mid-February, when 181 thousand tourists arrived.
It left most satisfied despite the bad weather, rainy and cold days in midsummer.
The outlook is much better for these days, with temperatures between 20 and 23 degrees, good weather to enjoy the beach, although the Meteorological service predicts some period of instability.
The routes recorded this Thursday morning the movement of
about 2,100 vehicles per hour crossing the Samborombón toll
, when the normal traffic there is, on average, 500 cars per hour.
It will increase in the next few hours and the flow of motorists who come with fixed sights will continue tomorrow, the beaches at the end of the road.
Mar del Plata. Correspondent.
GL