Coastal Uruguay, our sister publication, has advocated the importance of building Tourism and Travel for our coast line since day one, but not for the obvious reasons.
Coastal Uruguay is an ideal vacation playground in many ways. During the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, weather is pleasant, warm, the water cool and clean, the beaches pristine and unpopulated. Prices are pretty pleasing as well. As long as you avoid the somewhat inflated prices of January, a nice view or beachfront flat, not a hotel room, can be had for US$70 or less. Once restaurant, grocery and bar bills are factored in, which are about one third of EU or North America prices, what’s not to like?
When is the best time to visit? Anytime between November 15th and April 15 will most likely be good. The weather and prices are good to great.
I’ll spare you the details of, “What is there to do here?” You can get that anywhere. I’ll just highlight things that standout to me. As a sailor, I feel the windy/breezy conditions and the water quality make this one of the premier sailing locals on earth. The wide-open spaces in the unpopulated hills flanking the Coastal Corridor are ideal for horseback riding or cycling.
Moving on, there are two primary motivations for bring up tourism. First, the Coast of Uruguay is a well-kept secret, too well kept. Most tourism happens in January, with a fair amount in February. The visitors are primarily from Argentina and Brazil. So what’s the problem? Stores, restaurants and other businesses find it difficult to sustain their operations based on a ridiculous two month season. Next, the economic climate throughout Uruguay is morbid. Creative, entrepreneurs from the outside will most likely be involved if change is to come.
Both these maladies can be corrected with a vast expansion of the tourist season and number of visitors from the North.
If we’re unknown, no new visitors come, no new blood means the right expats, immigrants or investors with money and talent don’t enter the picture. This seems terribly obvious, but this is exactly what’s happening now. Why is this influx of talent/money from the north important? The South Americans that comprise the majority of the visitors now will not be the ones to help build a more prosperous Uruguay. The Uruguay of tomorrow will be designed and built by visionaries from the outside, working with, and hiring the young, educated, highly skilled young people of this country.
If the above hypothesis is accepted, the model for development is like this. Step one. The Season must be redefined at five months, and coupled with a dynamic tourism promotional program targeted at the EU and North America. This will help existing businesses, but more importantly, entrepreneurial visitors will become enchanted with the Coast and possible opportunities.
Step two. Some visitors will decide to live here or contribute in other ways. Many of these prospective immigrants/investors will not be interested in retiring. I’ve had a least 50 emails and a dozen phone calls from people on four continents asking the same thing, “What can I do there?” My answer is this: A business that serves the domestic market is a terrible idea. Forget it! Find a knowledge based service/product you can Export via the internet from Uruguay. This takes advantage of the countries low cost structure which includes hiring the highly educated, skilled, young workforce. There are dozens of Knowledge Exporting businesses that can be done from here.
If this simple sequence of events takes place, it will be magical for the Uruguayan people. If you’re interested in real estate, appreciation is a mere byproduct of an expanding middle-class.
The key to economic development and the real estate business is Tourism.
Does Uruguay have a plan to promote Tourism? None is evident. This is one of the risks I see in investment here.
Steve Bowman
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