Do not go to Bariló ?: The graduates' trip reaches 100 "lucas" | Chronic

By Francisco Nutti
@FranNutti

A few decades ago, dozens of high school students participated in the famous TV show "Feliz Domingo" in order to win a stay in Bariloche. Today, the tradition of graduates remains intact, but due to the inflationary context, many parents must pay fees close to $ 4,200 over two years to cover all expenses, according to the current quote. .

According to data collected by ChronicLast year, the price of a return flight from Buenos Aires to the city of Rio Negro was 10 days and all benefits between $ 30,000 and $ 40,000 per person, according to the company. At that price, he started getting paid at the end of 2017 or 2018, in accordance with agreed quotas, and he's been traveling this winter.

The figure has been raised to $ 60,000 for graduates in 2020. This year it is also sold to 2,021 travelers and prices range from $ 95,000 to $ 105,000.

"My son is traveling this winter and we started paying for it just 12 months ago, and I made a $ 4,000 and 14 $ 2,500 delivery for a total of $ 39,000. incredible efforts that we make every day (I office worker and my husband, baker), we can pay the costs, but now all the rest of the bonds has doubled and I'm worried about the trip of my youngest children "He explained Marcela to this newspaper, which pointed out that when the payment began, the prices were frozen: "It left me calm because if it matched inflation, it would kill me."

As, Gabriel, in the same situation as the previous interviewee, said: "At first, my little girl did not want me to spend, but later she offered to help with her savings and we were able to seal a few installments, God willing, this year she will be able to realize her dream , even if I know that if I had to start paying now, with how much everything is expensive, it would hardly come, since everything goes up except wages "he argued.

According to the latest data from the Argentine Federation of Travel Agencies and Tourism (Faevyt), sales of student trips have dropped by 35% compared to 2018. Sources from the Ministry of Education have indicated that 2017, about 700 thousand boys and, according to the records of companies that sell student packages, only 24%, about 170,000, made a graduates trip that year.

Of these, just over 120,000 chose the city of Bariloche as a destination, 30,000 opted for Carlos Paz, 12,000 for Brazil (Camboriú or Puerto Seguro) and about 3,000 chose to go to Cancún (Cuba) or to do a Caribbean cruise. These trips were possible because the dollar had not yet soared after the two mega-devaluations of the peso in 2018, when the US dollar had risen by 105%.

The inflationary recession, the drop in sales and the ghosts of bankruptcies like Snow Travel last August have defined a new trend in student tourism.

Today, companies have decided to offer a wide range of proposals in "low cost" mode: alternative places, less frequent stays, excursions or evenings in a bar, and even possibility of changing destination and tourist package in the middle the package. payments. Everything is to maintain, in a difficult panorama, the illusion of the trip of the graduates.

"I have been working for more than three years in a company dedicated to student tourism and this has never been so complicated for us, because our superiors recommend that we go to the school gates or participate more often. actively to social networks because it's a reality that with a course you simply do not fill the collective, in my case I have to coordinate institutions from different sectors and even if there are any people who contact us by word of mouth, we have to make an incredible effort"he stressed Lucia, travel coordinator of a major student agency.

The sector figures are not good: the end of last year ended with a sharp decline and this year 2019 continues on the same track. "Companies have come up with new options to deal with the current crisis and allow the number of pbadengers to grow"he said Adrián Manzotti, referring to the student tourism sector of the Argentine Federation of Tourism and Tourism Business Associations (Faevyt).

The concern extends to the southern city where the student segment generates more than 5,000 direct jobs, one of the main economic drivers of the Andean soil.

50% of hotels reserve their beds to graduates, who come not only from domestic destinations, but also from Chile and Uruguay, among others.

With a growing effort by the parents of the graduates, the tradition continues and San Carlos de Bariloche is preparing to welcome 100,000 young people from next month, coming from different provinces of the country.