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The plan of Buenos Aires to recover the 3 million tourists lost by the pandemic

2021-09-19T10:59:17.972Z


This Monday begins the international relaunch of the City, which seeks to keep it competitive for when the country reopens its borders.


Nora Sanchez

09/19/2021 1:00

  • Clarín.com

  • Cities

Updated 9/19/2021 5:53 AM

In 2019, Buenos Aires received 3 million tourists.

It was a record figure and everything indicated that the upward trend was going to continue.

But the pandemic arrived and tourism was paralyzed around the world.

Little by little, now the sector is waking up.

And this Monday begins 

the international relaunch of the City to recover lost tourists

.

The plan has

three axes

.

The first is a strategy to

reactivate the visitor's economy

, which is the one that includes both the direct and indirect impact of tourist activity on the economy, and investments in competitive sectors.

The other two axes are

"city diplomacy"

, with Horacio Rodríguez Larreta participating in international meetings and touring as "ambassador", and positioning on an agenda focused on comprehensive well-being and climate change.

The Argentine borders are still closed to tourism.

But from the City they explain that they

seek to anticipate

and prepare Buenos Aires so that it continues to be competitive as soon as foreign visitors can return.

A task that other cities have already been carrying out, such as New York or Madrid, which also launched their campaigns.

“The international relaunch of Buenos Aires will focus much on

recovering international tourism, promoting the arrival of foreign students and digital nomads

, and positioning the City as the best in Latin America to invest in strategic sectors, such as creative industries and industries based on knowledge ”, explained the Buenos Aires Secretary General and International Relations, Fernando Straface, in the presentation of the plan to the press.


Due to the pandemic, the tourist places of the City were left empty.

Photo Juano Tesone

The Buenos Aires bet for 2023 is

to receive 3 million tourists again

.

100,000 international students

are also expected to arrive 

per year

, compared to 80,000 in 2019.

And

20 thousand digital nomads

, against 8,000 two years ago, who could leave an expense close to 150 million dollars.

"These figures are based on those of 2019 and international projections. In the world there is talk that in the post-pandemic there will be a revenge of life

, people will want to travel and go out

. And the students are the most likely to go back to their previous life, "says Straface.

On the other hand, during the pandemic it was demonstrated that it

is possible to telecommute from anywhere in the world

.

And the City seeks to attract those travelers.

For example, granting them benefits and managing with the Nation the possibility of accessing a special visa.

For this, it has the Digital Nomads BA program.

Part of the Buenos Aires plan for visitors to return is to promote the arrival of digital nomads.

The official relaunch of the City to tourism

This Monday at 11 there will be

a relaunch event of the City

, which will be transmitted by streaming to strategic markets in the United States, Spain, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany and Latin America.

International experts and local references will present to promote Buenos Aires as

a great city to live, visit, study and do business

.

The event was called

 "Back to BA"

and will be held together with the English magazine The Economist.

Robert Wood, a member of the intelligence unit specialized in Latin America of that magazine, will make a public interview with Rodríguez Larreta, to analyze the competitive advantages of Buenos Aires.

The plan continues with urban diplomacy and the insertion of Buenos Aires into an international agenda, which includes the participation of Rodríguez Larreta in

the UN conference on Climate Change (COP26)

, which will be held between October 30 and November 12 in Glasgow.

In addition, in 2022 Buenos Aires will host the

C40 Mayors Summit

, the network of large global cities that works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta will go out into the world to participate in the agenda of meetings on climate change and to act as "ambassador" for Buenos Aires.

Photo Jorge Sánchez

"Climate change is

the next great common cause

worldwide after the pandemic," says Straface, who explains that fighting to mitigate it affects the quality of life in Buenos Aires and that is why it is part of the third axis of the relaunch plan , which aims at comprehensive well-being.

In fact, on his trip to Washington, Rodríguez Larreta will hold meetings at

the Office of Climate Change, led by John Kerry

.

In addition, he will meet with Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, and Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, vice president of the World Bank for the Latin America and Caribbean region.

In December Rodríguez Larreta, who aspires to be president in 2023, will also make

a European tour

to meet with the mayors José Luis Martínez Almeida, of Madrid;

Anne Hidalgo, from Paris;

Michael Müller, from Berlin, and Virginia Raggi, from Rome.

And next year he will travel to China and Israel.

The restrictions that still play against

With the borders closed to tourism, it is clear that the City's commitment is to the future and depends on decisions at the national level.

There is still

a trap in

force 

for flights

, which until October 1 authorizes only 16,100 weekly seats to enter the country.

A negligible amount, when before the pandemic 18,000 travelers arrived in Ezeiza per day.

The restrictions on flights and the lack of air connectivity in Argentina conspire when planning the reopening of the City to tourism.

Photo Juano Tesone

The unpredictability

does not help either

: to this day, for example, it is not known what the authorized flights will be for the month of October.

"The biggest challenge to recover tourism is related to

connectivity

, which deteriorated from the pandemic - Straface acknowledges -. In addition, the business environment in Argentina made many airlines reconsider their routes to our country."

To understand the impact, give an example.

One of the missed flights is that of Norwegian that linked London with Buenos Aires.

"That single flight," says the official, "brought 30% of foreign tourists who visited the City."

Look also

Quarrel in Puerto Iguazú: hoteliers and merchants ask to open the border for international tourism

Tourism: an opportunity for the post-pandemic economy?

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-09-19

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