The Secretary of Tourism, Environment, and Sports, Daniel Scioli, reported that he is coordinating actions with the Central Bank (BCRA) to review and improve the methodology used in the calculation of the deficit within the Services account, which covers the tourism sector. The goal is to more accurately reflect the true economic impact of this activity.
Scioli's statements came after the BCRA released data on outbound tourism and its influence on the balance of payments. According to the official, these figures include expenses that are not directly related to travel abroad, which creates a distorted image of the sector's performance.
“Following a report that publishes BCRA data on outbound tourism figures: we're working with the Central Bank to differentiate the MULC numbers regarding what are truly tourism expenses”, he stated.
Javier Milei, Guillermo Francos y Daniel Scioli.
In this regard, he indicated that the current methodology incorporates expenditures that have little or no relation to tourism, such as online shopping or subscriptions to digital platforms like Netflix, Amazon, or Spotify, which are counted as tourism outflows when they should be considered separately.
“The inclusion of other items such as e-commerce or subscriptions to digital platforms (Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, etc.) in the calculation distorts the real information about the sector's economic impact”, he emphasized.
He also mentioned that statistics on inbound tourism are being reviewed, that is, what foreign visitors spend in the country. As an example, he cited the case of tourists from Chile, whose average daily expenditure is calculated at 54 dollars, a figure that doesn't reflect reality.
“Starting in July, this balance will be clearer and tourism figures will not include items that distort the real numbers”, the secretary concluded.
Cifras récord de turismo.
Record figures in outbound travel
Thanks to the strong economic recovery achieved by Javier Milei's government, INDEC records also show a remarkable rebound in outbound tourism.
According to the statistical agency last Monday, between January and April 5,957,800 residents left the country, which means a 68.4% increase compared to the same period in 2023 and marks a historic record. In contrast, during that same period 2,065,300 foreign visitors arrived in Argentina, representing a year-on-year decrease of 21.4%.
Overall, the Services sector accumulated a deficit of 4.185 billion dollars in the first four months of 2024, a figure that amounts to more than 85% of the negative balance recorded throughout 2023.
Although the imbalance still remains below the peaks reached in 2017 and 2022, years in which the deficit exceeded 10 billion dollars, it is striking that the account linked to tourism recorded such a pronounced deficit in April, comparable to the summer season, something clearly unusual for that month.
