How Buenos Aires will support hotel growth

In an effort to expand offerings and accommodate projected tourism growth, Buenos Aires’ government has announced plans to implement a new bill that will offer tax incentives to the city’s hospitality industry. 

If passed, the bill is poised to benefit hoteliers who build new properties or undertake renovations or substantial expansions to current hotels.
 

“We have an opportunity to position the city as the most visited destination in the Southern Hemisphere, and in order to do so, it is necessary to grow our hotel infrastructure and expand our offerings with added value,” said Gonzalo Robredo, president of the Buenos Aires Tourism Board, in a statement. “We expect project investments to reach around $570 million USD by 2025.”

Based on the projections of growth in the next few years, the city is looking to expand the hotel offerings in the city and improve the hotel competitiveness of Buenos Aires at a regional level.
 
The Argentine capital is preparing to receive an increase of international tourists in 2018 and 2019. The city government announced a 25-percent increase in bookings for travel between July and December this year. Reservations made from Auckland and Sidney, Australia grew by 94 percent, followed by London (+76 percent), Frankfurt (+39 percent), Bogota (+23 percent), Madrid (+17 percent) and the United States (+16 percent). Room occupancy rates showcased a solid increase and reached the highest its been in the last seven years with over 58 percent occupancy between January and April 2018.
 
Between January and May this year, Buenos Aires saw 796,000 foreign tourists, an increase of 3.4 percent or 26,000 more visitors compared to the same time frame in 2017. 

One of the most important factors for this growth was the increased air connectivity from international destinations. Flight bookings during first-half 2018 for travel between July 2018-June 2019 grew 30 percent, following growth of 25 percent for travel between July-December 2018. Reservations from U.S. travelers during this time jumped 16 percent.
 

In the next few months, new connections from Los Angeles and Zurich will come into play, which should bring approximately 38,700 more tourists per year. The new route from Los Angeles will connect the west coast of the U.S. to Buenos Aires, which boasts a region of high purchasing power and represents an important connection to the Asian market. 

With so many growth possibilities in the works, the city reports the potential for an additional 430,000 new international tourists per year (an increase of more than 20 percent).