It is no coincidence that, in the midst of the boom of the economy of intangible goods, which is verified by a growing participation of the services sector in the global gross product, with percentages approaching 70% as the country’s level of development grows, also what was called “industry without chimneys”, tourism, has migrated towards adding value with more intangible offers.
Trend. In this, digitalization and globalization turned per capita spending on tourism services not only into a growing item but also, due to its elasticity with respect to income, into a procyclical bellows of the entire economy.
Another qualitative change in travel habits has to do with the level of exhaustion. According to the study Burnout 2025 by Boomeranghe 92% of workers say they feel “burned out.” In a country where fatigue has become part of the landscape, vacations are beginning to take on a new meaning: more than a period to “do everything,” the goal is to recover energy and balance.
From the tourism industry, this transformation is evident. “What was previously experienced as a race to accumulate activities, plans and stimuli today gives way to a growing preference for simple experiences, without demands and with a slower pace,” summarizes businessman Walter Zenobi, partner at Rada Beach.
The so-called “wellness tourism”, which prioritizes nature, deep rest and experiences that slow down the pace, is one of the segments that is growing the most according to the Global Wellness Institute (GWI). According to the GWI, the global wellness economy – which includes eleven sectors, from spas and health tourism to fitness, nutrition and mental well-being – It already exceeds US$6 billion worldwide and has a growth rate higher than that of the global economy, leveraged by two specific situations: population aging and the pressure of urban stress.
In figures. According to the latest report from the Barometer of World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism)recorded a 5% growth in international tourist arrivals in the first three quarters of 2025 (January-September), exceeding 2019 levels, with more than 1.1 billion travelers moving internationally, despite inflation and the climate of uncertainty due to geopolitical tensions. ANDhe third quarter recorded an increase of 4% compared to 2024, with strong demand during the summer season in the northern hemisphere. Africa, for example, experienced a 10% increase in arrivals during the first nine months of 2025 and Europe continued to be the largest destination region in the world, with 625 million international tourists between January and September 2025 (+4% year-on-year).
The sector in Argentina. Tourism is an important activity for the Argentine economy, both for its contribution to GDP and employment, as well as for its impact on the trade balance. According to a recent and exhaustive study by FOUND (made by Daniel Schteingart, Carola della Paolera and Joan Manuel Vezzato), depends on how you measure itrepresents between 1.7% and 4.4% of GDP, an important figure but still below the world average. It has great growth potential thanks to the country’s natural heritage, cultural diversity and urban offer.
As occurred in the rest of the region, Argentine tourism took off strongly since the mid-20th century, with the expansion of social tourism (union hotels, the formalization of vacations and the growth of the vehicle fleet), and commercial aviation and the growing interconnection with the rest of the world. However, in the last decade the activity lost dynamism, reflected in its participation in global and regional tourism.
Direct tourist GDP represents 1.7% of the total in Argentina, but among the 125 countries with available data, Argentina is ranked 110th in terms of the weight of tourism in the economy. The good news is that it has a lot to grow, given the characteristics of its natural heritage, cultural diversity and the urban attractiveness of large cities. FUNDAR highlights that the territories where tourism has greater economic relevance tend to be small economies. “In the majority of these cases, tourism development is associated with beach tourism, although in several – such as Spain, Mexico or Italy – the cultural, historical and urban offer is also very significant,” they emphasize.
Within Argentina, the capacity to attract foreign tourists is uneven: while the City of Buenos Aries is the main tourist destination (with 59% of visitors from abroad), it is followed by Mendoza (6%), Bariloche (5.8%), Calafate, Puerto Iguazú, Ushuaia, Salta, Córdoba, Rosario and San Martín de Los Andes. These ten destinations represent 91% of the overnight stays of non-residents in Argentina. On the other hand, if we refer to tourism in general, CABA concentrates 25%, followed by the province of Buenos Aires (due to the resorts on the Atlantic Coast), Córdoba (mountains and capital) and Río Negro (Bariloche). These four areas alone account for almost two thirds of the total.
Regarding the impact on employment, according to FUNDAR, andIn 2022 there were around 1.2 million people (5.5% of the employed population), highlighting gastronomy (2.3%), passenger transport (0.6%) and accommodation (0.4%); while other “tourism industries” such as those that bring together theArtistic and cultural activities, fuel sales, among others, represent 2.1%.
Comparison. The relevance of tourism in the Argentine economy is similar to that of Canada, Colombia and Australia. During 2024, tourism generated almost US$5 billion in exports and thus positioned itself in sixth place within the complex exporters of goods and services. (only behind soybeans, oil-petrochemicals, knowledge-based services, automobiles and corn). But, although tourist exports represent only a quarter of the value generated by the soybean complex, they turn out to be much more relevant than those of other complexes: 80% higher than the wheat complex, more than double the fishing complex and three and a half times the sunflower exports.
Furthermore, tourism can be an important source of foreign exchange generation for countries, but in the case of Argentina’s tourism trade balance it was “persistently in deficit.” with a negative balance in 42 of the 49 years since 1976. Of course, it was markedly deficient in periods of exchange appreciation, when the country becomes more expensive in dollars and it becomes cheaper to travel abroad. For example, they indicate that in 2017 there was a tourism deficit of US$6 billion, which was a record value. But far from being a peculiarity, it has macroeconomic connotations.. The chronic tourism deficit aggravates the shortage of foreign currency and often seems to generate economic policy dilemmas, such as the one verbalized by the short-lived Minister of Economy Silvina Batakis, of allocating the allocation of dollars for production, but not for luxury consumption. In addition to the difficult task of discriminating which type of travel is superfluous and which is not, the truth is that reducing this imbalance entails the need for coordinated macroeconomic and sectoral policies, which, for example, focus on improving infrastructure and local connectivity. Tome a challenge for an economy that carries these debts on several fronts but that, without solving them, unprotects a sector with employment and production possibilities.
