After Uruguay announced that it will not open its borders this...

A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Tourism announced that they are working on a pilot test to receive Uruguayan tourists in the city of Buenos Aires, who would arrive through the Buquebús company, after presenting negative coronavirus tests. The company, which has a daily commute between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, swabs passengers during check-in, before boarding.

According to what is being analyzed, the arrival of tourists from Uruguay, which would be the first after seven months of closed borders, could take place in early November. But only to spend a short stay, of a couple of days, in the city of Buenos Aires. The exchange rate today is very attractive for citizens of neighboring countries who, as in other times, could take advantage of the visit to go on a shopping tour.

They are also studying the possibility of opening borders for tourists from other neighboring countries, such as Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia.

“The idea is moving forward, but final approval is still missing,” explained ministry sources. In addition, they are also studying the possibility of an opening of borders for tourists from the other bordering countries: Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia. It would be in the form of “tourist bubbles”.

In these cases, unlike Uruguay, it would be to receive tourists arriving only by air and bound for the city of Buenos Aires for a short period of time, with a maximum of 10 days. They must present a negative test for coronavirus, but it has not yet been defined at what time of the trip. “The objective is also to facilitate the arrival of tourists from neighboring countries who may be attracted by the exchange rate to make purchases in Argentina. But for now it is a less mature idea than Uruguay’s ”, they anticipated.

However, the initiative of a limited opening to Uruguayan tourists will not be reciprocal. This week, the Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou announced that the country will not open its borders in the next summer tourist season due to the health situation.

Uruguay currently accumulates 2,701 positive cases, with an average of 45 infections a day in the last week. Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 53 deaths. “We will have a restricted summer, with closed borders,” Lacalle Pou said.

The initiative of a limited opening to Uruguayan tourists will not be reciprocal. This week, Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou announced that the country will not open its borders in the next tourist season

“It is a difficult decision for us. We stretch it as much as possible,” the president explained. The president also said that Uruguayans and resident foreigners who enter the country and do not respect the mandatory quarantine will be brought to justice.

During the past year, Uruguay received about 3.5 million foreign tourists. And more than 50% were Argentines, who reached a total of 1.8 million.

This week, in Argentina the regular domestic flights were resumed and it is expected that in the coming days the regular operation will also be enabled for international flights. So far, international and local airlines operate special flights to and from other countries.

Despite the health situation, with a record of coronavirus cases in recent weeks, the Ministry of Tourism assures that there will be a summer season for local tourists. They are working on various measures to ensure that there can be a tourist movement in the coming months. They estimate that during the summer it will be possible to mobilize between 7 and 9 million local tourists. In the good seasons of previous years, that number stood at 15 million tourists.

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After receiving the first regular service, Jujuy asked that the flights also be enabled for tourism