Foreign visitors to Argentina are up 79.6%, with day-trippers leading the trend
In June, Argentina witnessed a 79.6% increase in foreign visits year-on-year, tallying up to 947,800 individuals.
Official data released showed that less than half of these visitors, about 419,400, were tourists, marking a 76.1% annual rise.
Interestingly, 528,400 of the visitors were day-trippers, entering Argentina without an overnight stay.
This is common among border cities or for day visits to Buenos Aires by air or water.
This increase in short visits can be attributed, in part, to favorable exchange rates, leading to a rise in ‘shopping tourism’ where visitors shop in Argentina and return the same day.
Day-trippers in June experienced an 82.5% year-on-year surge, constituting almost 56% of the total visitors for the month.
Of the total foreign visitors in June, 191,900 arrived by air, 64% more than in the same month of 2022.
However, this is still less than the 228,494 air arrivals seen in May 2019, before the pandemic.
In terms of countries of origin, 66.8% of the visitors came from three neighboring countries: Uruguay (26.1%), Brazil (23.8%), and Chile (16.8%).
The upward trend in foreign tourist visits started gaining momentum in November 2021 after Argentina reopened its borders for international tourism.
As for outbound tourism, the official data highlighted that 732,700 Argentinians traveled abroad in June, a 16.1% increase from the same month last year.
Of them, 411,700 were tourists, and 321,000 were day-trippers.