Argentina has potential for medical travel

New findings from the World Economic Forum (WEF) identify key action areas Argentina can pursue to enhance tourism. It says that visitors can take comfort in one of the best healthcare systems in the Americas.

While Argentina is a top South American tourist destination, ranking third in the region, it has opportunities to really thrive through advancing some key strategies. These include cultivating nation branding with tourism assets at its core, improving travel infrastructure, increasing digital integration and ICT infrastructure, and leveraging its natural and cultural heritage to attract tourism.

Argentina’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness study from the WEF finds particular opportunity for Argentina to develop its natural tourism sector. Global trends towards sustainable tourism options present an enormous opportunity for Argentina to design a holistic tourism offering that appeals to this growing market.

Underlying ICT infrastructure and broad ICT adoption are imperative for growth of the travel and tourism sector. They not only serve to increase tourism receipts, but also allow a detailed understanding of travellers’ needs to a degree never seen before, providing enhanced segmented marketing opportunities. Improving Argentina’s ICT can enable the improvement and tailoring of traveller experiences while saving costs for both businesses and travellers through better management of transactions and intermediary practices.

To improve its tourism, Argentina must define and promote its top tourism draws. Argentina’s brand should be guided by national values, cultural heritage and its rich nature in discovering its unique proposition. The brand positioning for travel and tourism is firmly linked to the international brand of Argentina as a country, underlining why alignment between the travel and tourism body and other governmental organisations is necessary.

For city destinations, Buenos Aires, like many other cities around the world, may not be giving enough weight to travel and tourism as a core subject of its urban development. Argentina should lean into growing interest in city specific tourism as a key component of its national tourism brand.

Travellers to Argentina already benefit from a tourism infrastructure that is above average for South America. Between 2015 and 2019, Argentina saw an increase in national air routes from 92 to 139 and international routes jumped from 91 to 153.

Despite its improvement in airport infrastructure, Argentina’s ground infrastructure is relatively poor which hurts its tourism competitiveness. Improving ground infrastructure throughout the country will improve its appeal to tourists who are looking for greater ease of access once in the country.

While Argentina once saw many medical tourists, numbers are now low as there is hardly any marketing and no government support.