RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “As a hotel chain, we face a huge challenge, since statistics indicate that activities would return to a ‘normalcy’ around 2022. That is why we want to be prepared to receive that flow of people within the country and those who visit us from abroad”, said Alberto Albamonte, president of Grupo Hotelero Albamonte (GHA), during the opening of the Howard Johnson Plaza Convention Center & SPA in La Plata in August of this year.
The new president of the Federación Empresaria Hotelera Gastronómica de la República Argentina (Fehgra), Fernando Desbots, said that during the pandemic, approximately 25 percent of the sector’s employment was destroyed, around 170 thousand jobs, and about 13 thousand hotel and gastronomic companies went bankrupt.
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However, he is hopeful of having an excellent summer season: “We have great expectations, which are in line with the hotel reservations we are seeing in Argentine tourist destinations,” he says.
The PreTravel program was a strategic measure of the government, which was consolidated as a great tool and was vital to boost domestic tourism throughout the country. The industry hopes that the arrival of international tourism, which the exchange rate favors today, will be consolidated in the coming months.
“The sector needs this support because the pandemic has left a liability in our establishments, which is very difficult to overcome without a prompt reactivation. Its effects on the business structure are profound,” he adds,
THE 2021 OPENINGS
When all the news published this year about the sector talked about hotels that remained closed, closed, or sold, the Albamote Hotel Group inaugurated the Howard Johnson La Plata hotel and thus began a strong offensive in its growth throughout the country during 2021.
“It was a big bet to provide the city of La Plata with a hotel of this site and services. Given the growing number of traditional tourists and, above all, the great demand from the corporate sector, La Plata deserved to have it”, Albamonte pointed out during the official presentation.
The hotel is located on a 3.5-hectare site, surrounded by a large park with different species of trees, with access from 44 Avenue (the main access road to the city), and has 120 rooms and suites equipped to the chain’s international standards.
It offers buffet breakfast; room service; meeting room; business center; lobby bar; snack bar and a spa with two heated swimming pools (one with hydro-massage), dry and wet sauna, Scottish shower, and 3 cabinets for massages, facial and body treatments. It also has rooms for events; wifi uncovered parking and 36 subway parking spaces; outdoor swimming pool with solarium; a Kids club, a gym and a convention hall.
The next landing of the group in 2021 was in the city of Zárate with the opening of the second hotel of the Days Inn chain in Argentina, integrated to the Wyndham Hotel & Resort chain.
Days Inn Zarate is located on RN 9 km 85,400 (Rosario-Buenos Aires collector road). It is a hotel specially oriented to the productive and corporate market that concentrates on the industrial and business sector of the area.
It has 80 rooms and a 4.5-hectare property with two convention halls; two meeting rooms; spa with dry and wet sauna, a Scottish shower and massage room; swimming pool with solarium, a tennis court, a mini-golf circuit, and a green area with entertainment and heliport.
Along the same lines, on October 1, GHA opened a third establishment in the Villa Devoto neighborhood of the city of Buenos Aires (Av. San Martín and Asunción), six blocks from the Arenales square gastronomic center and four blocks from Francisco Beiró Av.
“This third establishment located in CABA is part of a series of openings. Soon, we expect to open others in Parque Termal Dolores and the provinces of Santa Fe and Catamarca. More hotels in other cities are in the pipeline, projects or with signed contracts”, said the CEO of the group that manages the Howard Johnson and Days Inn brands in Argentina.
In this case, the establishment has 21 rooms with a private balcony equipped with a minibar, kitchen, microwave, and cutlery; 24-hour reception and wifi.
On November 23, Days Inn Argentina and Rio Uruguay Seguros (RUS) officially signed a contract for the construction and start-up of a new Days Inn hotel in Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Ríos).
Located in an area close to the city on a 4-hectare park, the hotel will have 40 rooms in the first stage; convention hall, SPA, restaurant, indoor and outdoor swimming pool.
“With the installation of this important hotel, we are fortunately filling an important gap in an area of enormous tourist and corporate potential and we have no doubt that it will be accompanied by success,” said the CEO of the group responsible for 41 hotels in Argentina in operation and 22 hotels under construction.
Another example of the sector’s growth is the recent opening of the Hilton Garden Inn in the city of Santiago del Estero, the first international chain to set up in the province.
During its inauguration, the Executive Secretary of INPROTUR, Ricardo Sosa, said: “The opening of this international chain hotel will place Santiago del Estero among the international destinations required by Hilton clients, which in turn will give the province’s offer a higher profile, positioning it in the country and the world. It is the first international chain that the province has, and it is a crucial step in the continuous process of growth that has been taking place in the tourist field for several years”.
IN SANTIAGO DEL ESTERO
He also highlighted that this opening in Santiago del Estero is one of the four they have underway. “In 2022, the chain will continue to open hotels in Posadas, Corrientes and the northern corridor of Buenos Aires province, ” he announced.
Within this same trend, the Explora company sets its first foot in Argentina by opening a lodge in El Chaltén, the national trekking capital.
Located on the northern slope of the Eléctrico River, and with unparalleled views of the Marconi Glacier and the Eléctrico Valley, the lodge has 20 rooms, and serves as a base for Argentine and foreign travelers who want to explore Patagonia, from the area of the Los Huemules Reserve, where the lodge is located, the Lago Desierto region, Los Glaciares National Park and the Southern Ice Fields.
“We are delighted to arrive in Argentina with our different proposal to offer experiences that integrate the luxury of the essentials with a deep knowledge of the places. At Explora, we seek to awaken in each traveler the enthusiasm to explore exceptional places and care for territories with unique natures and cultures like Patagonia Argentina, where there is much to discover and know,” concludes Gonzalo Undurraga, CEO of the company.
EXPLORA, IN EL CHALTÉN
The incorporation of this new lodge in El Chaltén joins a network of Explora destinations in Chilean Patagonia, such as Torres Del Paine and Patagonia National Park. According to the company, this is an investment of close to 9 million dollars and is part of the expansion plan in the region with projects in Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Bolivia for the next six years, with a global investment of around 120 million dollars.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts presented the new Esplendor by Wyndham Buenos Aires Tango hotel. Located in the city’s heart, it is the third hotel of the chain in Buenos Aires, which already has the Esplendor Plaza Francia and Esplendor Buenos Aires. It is also the 57th Wyndham Hotels & Resorts hotel in Argentina.
The recently built building, located at Rivadavia 947, has 42 rooms of four different categories, a heated swimming pool with changing rooms and solarium, whirlpool, garden, restaurant, and a meeting room with a capacity for up to 50 people. It offers a buffet breakfast, free wifi in all rooms, and free parking.