I'm always amazed that USers assume they're the only ones traveling, and that their presence alone will make or break some other country's tourism industry. Please. The "void" caused by the fee will very likely be occupied by visitors from the rest of the world (yes, there is such a thing). I doubt the Argentine economy will even notice.

^ We're on the same page here. As I've maintained throughout this thread, I don't believe the effect is going to be significant. Only a small proportion of those affected by the fee will change their plans as a result and, for the majority of visitors not affected by the fee, there's obviously no change whatsoever.

If that were the case, why don't the airlines flying to Buenos Aires just raise their fares $131 and pocket the difference.

No one would change their plans, right? :)

:D Yes, it would. :D Also, it would make PDP a cheaper destination for non-Argentines to visit. :D

PDP prices have been on the rise as of late..... but this is due to the large group of North Americans, Europeans and Mexicans (among others) that have been flooding Punta as of late (including quite a few of the private jet crowd)... these groups have traditionally not been part of the Summer in Punta.

I will be interesting to see how the international financial crisis affects Punta this year... initial press reports have been cautious, but we will have to wait until the second week of January to really know how the season is going.

This season should be good (it's mostly paid for).

The boom-bust seems to be making a comeback to the southern cone, though Uruguay's economy is still doing very well (including significant foreign investment).

It seems the President is looking for revenue wherever she can find it, whether it be "Visa Reciprocity Fees," or pensions belonging to Argentines themselves, see story below. One question: if the gov't seizes these private pension funds, supposedly to pay off current obligations (I assume), where will the money come from to fund the pensions when payouts are needed? Is the gov't just seizing these monies and saying "sorry," or the money exists elsewhere, but just isn't available "now," so to speak?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...=latin_america

The timing on implementing this fee could not be worse for the Argentine tourism industry.

With the dollar strengthening (the ascent has been dizzying, like 30% in 3 months -- for example, the dollar just hit a 5-year high against the British Pound), LOTS of other destinations are suddenly looking attractive. Add $130, and it's one more reason NOT to go to Argentina next year.

At the same time, the weakening Euro is making Argentina less attractive to European visitors.

Wear someone else's shoes!
 

The problem with Americans is that they can't imagine themselves in another situation :D They claim they have only to pay a fee, but they have no idea of what we, people from Argetina, Brazil, Chile or wherever (whose citizens are required to have a visa for USA, Canada and Australia) go through to get a visa to their country. And if we get a visa, we still can have our entry denied or on top of that, we are treated like sh*t even after the immigration at the airport. I never felt welcome in US.
I have visited US twice, then I went Australia, UK and other coutries in Asia and I promissed myself never going to US again. Of course, If I really wanna go to a country, it's not a fee that will make me change my plans. By the way, I'm planning to take an Australian Student visa, which fee is A$450 + A$60 work permit. Don't need to explain why I haven't chose US and their $231 fee.

Argentina really chose a bad timing to do it, but while Americans visitors may decrease, Brazilians will keep coming since USD got really expensive in Brazil and ppl there are changing their summer vacation destination from MIA and NYC to BUE.

That crowd and also even the "private jet" set -- especially those who have been using the fractional jet ownership market -- have been burned hard this year too. I think we'll see the impact more in play in the December 2009- March 2010 season than this December 2008-March 2009 season for reasons erik mentioned above, but my take is that we will see less spending this season for items normally paid for in PDP itself. The tail end of the season in PDP is likely to be paying a heavier price for the global financial meltdown than the front part of the season. Just my two cents that may not even be worth two cents. :D

Is this the Chile-style stapled piece of paper that you can transfer to a new passport during the 10 year validity?

With any luck, we may find out before it's implemented! BTW, the validity has not been announced yet ...

John

When do they start collecting this tax/fee or whatever? Sorry if it's already mentioned somewhere.

You've actually done this? Please share.

Supposed to be good only for the remaining life of the particular US or Canadian passport.

Not to mention there is a stamp under the receipt in the passport which is more important than the the stapled receipt.

Dont think too many fractional jet owners are down in PDP... these guys are outright owners for the most part. I dont see their expenditures slowing down... but I do think that overall spending will be down this season - as you say for things paid for on the ground. Also, the overall season in PDP goes on until mid March, so when the jet set leaves around the final week of Jan, the more regular folk go in February and March.... and much of that season is not paid for in advance so the jury is still out on what sort of a season the 2009 summer will be.