Argentine Accent Returns to Brazilian Beaches

12/07/2015 - 08h27

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MARIANA CARNEIRO

FROM BUENOS AIRES

With the Argentine currency appreciated – a pre-election strategy carried out by Cristina Kirchner to avoid an unpopular dollar hike – and the Brazilian real underappreciated, Brazil has become once again an attractive destination to Argentine tourists.

Some 25% of those who travelled abroad from January to August went to Brazil - a 13% increase in comparison with the same period in 2014.

Press/Secom Brazil has become once again an attractive destination to Argentine tourists.

The underappreciated Brazilian currency has made hotel rates and shopping more accessible.

"In Brazil, the food is more expensive, but the portions are much bigger, and the current value of the real makes it worth it," says lawyer Hernán Campaña, 50, who will spend 15 days with his family on the coast of Santa Catarina.

Up to October, Embratur (Brazilian Tourist Board) registered a 50% increase in sales of trips to Brazil bought by Argentineans. Abav (an organization comprised of Brazilian travel agencies) is expecting a 30% hike in the number of Argentine tourists by the end of the summer.

Oscar Juárez, a travel agency sales manager, believes that part of this demand is explained by the expectation that Argentina will see its currency lose strength as soon as the new president, Mauricio Macri, takes office - as it occurred with the Brazilian real.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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