29 July 2007

Tourism in Santa Fe

I'm a fan of travel and tourism, as you may already have noticed. I'm convinced that travelling broadens the mind and (under the proper conditions) helps you relax, rethink your life strategies, plan ahead. I'm pleasantly surprised to notice how Rosario is slowly receiving an increasing trickle of tourists, who will, I assume, take the good news back to their homes, whether in Argentina or abroad (it seems to be mostly Argentina and mostly Buenos Aires, though there have been no formal surveys of that, and I've walked past groups of people speaking English and German more than once in the last few weeks).

I was also surprised, negatively and continuously, that Santa Fe as a province didn't bother to try and attract tourism. That was until now. The government, in coordination with private companies, has launched Turismo Cerca, an initiative that is (in this first stage) intended to promote tourism in the province. It's only in Buenos Aires, because it's conveniently close, accessible, and of course, because one third of the country's population lives in the metropolitan area. With hundreds of kilometers of river coast, plus eco-agricultural and historical tourism options just waiting to be exploited, it's a shame that this hasn't been done before, but better late than never.

I must say that I myself am guilty of not advertising my province by word or by example. I've stayed in places 1000 km away from here and I haven't visited the tens of small towns not 100 km around Rosario that have interesting things to show. Considering my availability of money and time, I feel like I'm wasting my time sitting here while I could be zigzagging around the province with a backpack... I think I'll be checking that touristic portal of the province more often.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Pablo,
    Very interesting indeed. So would you say Argentines are keen on travelling inside of their country, in general? It seems that the whole country is picking up on marketing themselves lately...This is good for everyone.
    Thanks,
    Tomas

    ReplyDelete

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