Travel2latam spoke with Andrés Ortiz, General Director of Tourism Products of Paraguay.
What does it mean for Paraguay to be present at FITUR again this year?
This international showcase is very important for us. One of the priority markets here in Europe is Spain. That is why we are bringing all the tourist offer linked to nature, culture, gastronomy and crafts. We are going to have the presence of Paraguayan chefs who will be doing tastings of our food, Bori bori, which is the best broth. So there is a varied offer that we are promoting at the Paraguay stand.
Are you supported by operators or the private sector?
We are accompanied by operators, agencies that offer religious tourism and nature tourism, and also the entire offer of the Paraguayan Chaco, a region with a lot of wildlife, fauna and flora. Most of the companies, operators and agencies that accompany us today offer these destinations. Also the Jesuit missions, which is one of the main products that we offer in Paraguay through the Jesuit route. We are also promoting some hotel chains.
Paraguay has not stopped growing in recent years and its tourist destinations, logically, have too. What is the current state of the market at the moment and what is the outlook for this year?
The future is a starting point. Paraguay aims to consolidate itself as a regional tourist destination. Our main markets are Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, and we are also targeting Colombia, Panama and, of course, Spain in the European market. We are offering Paraguay as a destination in the regional market in these countries. We have very good connectivity, so that makes it much easier for visitors to get around.
And as a projection of this year's presence of Paraguay in fairs and trade missions, we will be in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
Another of the areas of work that we are targeting is MICE tourism, where we will be present at several important events and fairs, promoting Paraguay as a destination for meeting tourism. This is one of the areas of work of the current government and we have very good infrastructure and equipment in Paraguay. We have already demonstrated this with several sporting and cultural events that put into practice our capacity to organize and host them. We are also pleased to announce that we will host for three consecutive years the World Rally Championship that will take place this year in August in the Department of Itapúa, in the south of the country. So we bring all these offers here today at FITUR.
Paraguay is also an icon of shopping tourism.
That's right. In addition to enjoying the nature, culture and gastronomy of Paraguay, we also have destinations that are well established for shopping tourism, such as Ciudad del Este, on the border with Foz de Iguazú, close to an international attraction such as the Iguazú Falls. The Encarnación area also has shopping tourism. Salto del Guairá and Pedro Juan Caballero are cities on the border with Brazil and are destinations that today offer shopping tourism.
We are promoting all these tourist attractions but linked to nature and culture to combine them so that the whole family can enjoy them.
Regarding the evolution of hotel investments, what can you tell us about the hotels that have been launched recently and what is coming next?
There are important hotel chains that are opening up in Asunción. Today we already have more than a thousand beds in Asunción. Last year, we had around 900. We are adding more hotel offerings and some hotels are adding more beds in their establishments, while others are betting on other important chains. This year there will be important information regarding the opening of new chains that will be opening up in Paraguay.