Last week, Argentina’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) released its latest International Tourism Statistics report of December 2019. According to the data gathered by the agency, foreign arrivals reached 304,400 during the last month of the year, showing a 3.3% year-on-year increase. On the other hand, tourists traveling abroad totaled 243,100 travelers, falling 13%.
Throughout 2019, Argentina recorded 3,065,200 foreign arrivals, which represents an 11.1% increase in inbound tourism. As usual, Ezeiza and Aeroparque registered 88.7% of the arrivals, with a year-on-year increase of 10.1%.
Conversely, Argentine tourists flying abroad reached 3,950,300 travelers, dropping 11.9%. Both Ezeiza and Aeroparque registered 81.8% of the departures, showing a decrease of 10.2% in outbound tourism compared to 2018.
In this sense, the INDEC report shows an increase in total foreign arrivals of 61,300 in December, after eleven consecutive months of negative figures. Yet in 2019, the total balance showed 885,100 fewer tourists coming into the country.
As noted by the government agency, Brazilian tourists visited the country the most (68,500), showing a 0.5% decrease. They are followed by the Europeans, (66,500), which increased by 4.4%.
In the other airports, without taking into account Ezeiza and Aeroparque, inbound tourism registered a 2.3% decrease over the same month of 2018; with the main markets being the rest of America, Chile and Brazil.