Vacations in Mar del Plata: a “lost season” for Argentines

Light traffic and a half-empty city: that is the panorama in Mar del Plata, the main summer destination for Argentines. With 211% annual inflation and a strong salary depreciation, the season “she’s lost” for the merchants forks “a sadness” for the tourists.

“On vacation you should be calm, have a good time. I’m not telling you that I want to spend everything, but I shouldn’t be doing the math.”says Julián Groppo, a 26-year-old architect who has been spending the summer in this coastal city on the Atlantic 400 km south of Buenos Aires for ten years.

This year the Argentine peso has lost so much value that Groppo had to reduce his annual vacation from 15 days to five and now spends half his time going from one store to another to look for food at better prices.

“The truth is that it makes me sad”laments the architect about his truncated vacation in the nicknamed “Happy city”.

For almost 80 years, Mar del Plata normally receives six times more tourists than its 650,000 inhabitants between Christmas and February. But this summer there was barely 60% occupancy in the first half of January, according to the Hotel and Gastronomic Business Association (AEHG) of the spa city.

In the bus terminal, with 42 platforms, there are only three occupied by long-distance transport. Outside, the line of taxis waiting for passengers turns around the street and some drivers chat about the low influx of tourists.

One of them, Daniel Molina, remembers that “Last year, I made at least 30 trips a day.”

“Today with luck I reach 15”, he says, pointing to the clear pathto. “It’s a lost season. He looks what this is now: he is dead!”

“It’s another country”

Argentines suffered an inflation of 12% in November and 25% in December, for a total of 211% year-on-year, the highest since June 1991.

The coup de grace was a devaluation of the peso of more than fifty% in mid-December, in the first days of President Javier Milei’s government, which precipitated inflation and contracted salaries twenty%, according to a report from the Argentine Workers’ Central.

And this price spike coincides with the holiday season in the southern cone.

Now, in a country where the minimum wage is 156,000 pesos (about US$179, at the official exchange rate), just the round-trip bus ticket from Buenos Aires costs 80,000 pesos (US$92), a night for two in a mid-range hotel costs around 50,000 pesos (US$57) and a dinner at a restaurant costs 13,000 pesos (US$14) per person.

For this reason, merchants like José María Mendiola have only half of the tents he rents occupied in the spa where he is in charge.

“What is happening is neither more nor less than the crisis that Argentina is experiencing: until two months ago it was one country and today it is another,” comments.

For real estate agent Valeria Pratto, the outlook is even worse: “Compared to last year, I didn’t even rent a quarter of it.”

One of lime, and a lot of sand

But one of lime, and a lot of sand: tourists take advantage of the unprecedented space available on the beach and set up small soccer or paddle ball fields, something impossible to achieve in other seasons crowded with tourists sunbathing in the sun.

Luciano Rodrigo, a racehorse specialist, says: “When there are a lot of people you pass by here and the music from all the speakers mixes up.” Now, however, you can hear the strong wind that slows down walking, characteristic of the Argentine coast.

In the Mar del Plata air, the smell of saltpeter and boiled corn cobs merge, a classic snack on Argentine beaches.

On the other side of the rope that divides the private spas from the public beach, street vendors travel along the coast from end to end offering balls, dresses, glasses or toys.

Guido Salvatierra, 35, sells boiled corn (cobs) served with butter, oil or mayonnaise for 3,000 pesos (US$3.4).

“Last year a family bought corn for each one,” he says. “Today they share it.”