Confirmed, this week, the record of foreign tourists joining our neighbor. At a press conference held at the Uruguayan Secretary of State, Montevideo, Uruguay’s Tourism Minister Liliam Kechichiam said that 2017 was an extraordinarily good year. Based on data collected by the government’s research body, 3,940,790 visitors from other localities arrived in the country via airports last year – an increase of 18.4% compared to 2016. In addition to arriving by sea, the number jumps to 4.2 million tourists.

Turnover with the sector was 27.9% higher than 2016, reaching US $ 2,334,258,475. “This growth and the similarity between the first and last semesters of 2016 and 2017 only occurred because the Ministry of Tourism, together with those in charge of the sector, implemented new strategies that diversified the tourism offer throughout the country during the whole year, said Uruguay’s Vice Minister of Tourism, Benjamin Liberoff.

Besides this increase, the number of entry of Brazilians has been growing every year, proof of this is the jump of 16.4% from 2017 compared to 2016. Last year more than 500 thousand tourists entered, leaving Brazil in second place of countries that emit travelers to Uruguay. The leadership is from Argentina, with more than 2.5 million entrants, balance 24.1% better than 2016.

The third is Chilean, with an increase of 19.7%, fourth in Uruguayans, non-residents, with + 5.7% and fifth, Paraguay with + 4.9%. There was a drop of almost 2% in the arrival of tourists from other locations such as Europe and North America from 2017 to 2016.

Among the most sought after locations are Montevideo with 1,077,526 visitors, Punta del Este with 824,016 tourists and thirdly the Thermal Coast with 670,134 visitors.

The goal declared by the Ministry of Tourism of Uruguay is to reach a mark of 1 million Brazilian tourists by 2020. To achieve this goal, the government agency works in partnership with private companies to create new strategies to boost the sector in the country, such as example new destinations and routes to Uruguay, by airlines.

Tourism represents approximately 7% of the Gross Domestic Product in the impact of Uruguayan economic activity and 8% of the workforce is related to the sector. And in order to keep this segment warm and ensure constant growth, the Ministry started in 2016 to reformulate the National Tourism Plan by 2030, with study variables up to 2050, where the integration between public and private sectors for structural and logistical improvements, promise the optimization and excellence of the services offered to tourists.

Photo: Felipe Tocchetto / Flickr