Argentina’s Travel Industry to Get Shot in the Arm

An $800 million package, datelined until 2007, will be invested in Argentina’s travel industry with a considerable chunk of those funds being poured into the building of new hotels and restaurants, the Argentina Entrepreneurial Hotel & Gastronomy Federation (FEHGRA is the acronym in Spanish) and the Tourism Hotel Association (AHT) reported this week.

In addition to building new hotels, this megabuck investment project pursues the streamlining and reequipping of food outlets and eateries across the country, officials from both organizations pointed out.

FEHGRA Chairman Alberto Alvarez explained that as many as 4,000 new rooms in hotels and inns will be built this year alone. Significant attention will be paid to the city of Buenos Aires with the construction of theme lodgings related to tangos and bohemian life, two topics that have been increasingly catching on among some groups of international travelers.

Some $400 million will be spent between 2004 and 2005 in both building and remodeling four-star and five-star establishments owned by local, foreign and independent hotel chains.