The INPROTUR and CAT welcomed more than 90 hosted buyers from more than 10 countries in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. During the event, Tourism and Sports Minister Matías Lammens, INPROTUR’s Executive Secretary Ricardo Sosa, and President of the Argentine Chamber of Tourism (CAT) Gustavo Hani were present. Ministers and Secretaries of Tourism from Tucumán, Río Negro, Entre Ríos, Salta, La Pampa, Jujuy, Santa Cruz, and Buenos Aires, among others, also attended.
The #INPROTUR’s Executive Secretary, Ricardo Sosa, made reference to the expectations built up around the business matchmakings. “As there are already more hosted buyers than those we had planned from 10 countries, we have great expectations. There are more than 90 representatives sharing the beginning of these business meetings, more than 55 Argentinian hosted buyers, and more than 3,000 meetings scheduled for these days.”
Sosa, pointed out, “This is very important for us because we are speeding up the offer intermediation, which means balancing out the supply and demand to generate the commercialisation flow we need right now.”
Lastly, he added, “It is one more step we are taking in this international reactivation process. This goes hand in hand with Argentina’s firm positioning in different countries and the management to recover all air lanes from several territories. We are satisfied because inbound tourism reactivation is happening.”
Minister of Tourism Matías Lammens highlighted the importance of the meeting in the context of the sector reactivation. “The International Fair of Tourism (#FIT2021) is a unique opportunity to meet the industry’s main figures. We have gathered again and confirmed, once more, that tourism is up and running.”
He also said, “Our challenge is to keep on providing the conditions, so that the sector’s big players invest in Argentina. The INPROTUR and CAT, together with other public and private sector actors, have worked to reactivate tourism, and these joint efforts must be recognised.”
Some of the event’s participants also referred to the expectations created due to these business matchmakings.
Valeria Carretero, from CATCO REPS (Lima, Perú), manifested: “I have high expectations. I’ve got suggestions and would like to have strategic allies since we are launching a new ‘Travel Experience’ area. It is about unique destinations, such as the End of the World Train, which are not widely known in our country, and many Peruvians want to visit them. I’m sure that the touristic development for Argentina and Perú will be very good.”
Augusto Yañez Leite, Marketing Director in Personal Tour Operator in Porto Alegre, also expressed Brazilians’ interest in our country. “Argentina is our brother, and we love visiting it to eat and drink. Good wine, asado, tango, people, the weather… I think Brazilian tourists have great expectations of travelling there. In this tourism reactivation, Aerolíneas Argentinas is connecting Porto Alegre with Argentina again as of January.”
Eloy Peréz, from México, stated, “This is the third FIT I take part in, so I’m quite familiarised with the country. I work for an Irish company, in which I handle hotel product contracting. We are an online distribution platform, covering mainly Buenos Aires and other southern destinations, such as San Martín de Los Andes and Bariloche. We aim to know Argentina’s inclination regarding the border reopening, so that we can make the access to the country easier as there are restrictions in many countries in the world affecting tourism development and recovery.”
Anita Chudasama, from Detroit, USA, is the Sky Bird Travel Manager and also wants to meet her expectations despite the language barrier. “I have between 15 and 20 meetings this Monday and another 20 on Tuesday. This is my first trip to Argentina, and I’m very happy to meet everyone. It will be a great experience. People are very nice to me even though I don’t speak Spanish.”
On December 6th and 7th, several business matchmakings are taking place with 92 foreign buyers from the markets of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, USA, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay, the Arab Emirates, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Turkey, and Venezuela.
In addition, there will be more than 55 Argentinian buyers and a total of 361 sellers, who will seek to keep on strengthening commercialisation for both public and private sectors in the context of the International Fair of Tourism.
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