Economists are calling it the greatest tourism reversal in modern Argentine history. The country is on track to lose up to $13 billion in foreign currency in 2025, which is more than 1.6% of its GDP. The reason is simple but painful: it is now cheaper for citizens to vacation abroad than at home, while international visitors are finding Argentina to be one of the most expensive destinations on the planet.
The Numbers Are Honestly Brutal
In just the first nine months of 2025, 9.7 million Argentines traveled abroad. In contrast, only 4.1 million foreign tourists entered the country. That is a net outflow of 5.6 million people.
October followed the exact same script. About 1.2 million Argentines left, an increase of 9.3% from the previous year, while fewer than 680,000 foreigners arrived, a drop of 10%. The monthly tourism deficit hit $365 million. Locals spent nearly $600 million overseas, while foreigners spent only $232 million inside Argentina.
If this trend keeps up, 2025 will shatter every previous record for tourism-related dollar loss, easily eclipsing the $10.7 billion lost in 2017 under Mauricio Macri.
Why Is Argentina Too Expensive?
The main culprit is President Javier Milei’s successful war on inflation, along with an unintended side effect. After wrestling monthly inflation from triple digits down to single digits using strict fiscal austerity and a quasi-fixed exchange rate, the government has created a peso that is drastically overvalued on a real, inflation-adjusted basis.
The result is pretty wild. A week at the beach in Florianópolis or Punta del Este is now cheaper for a middle-class Argentine family than staying in Mar del Plata or Pinamar. A weekend of shopping in Santiago or Asunción costs less than staying in Buenos Aires. Even Patagonia’s five-star lodges and Mendoza wine tours, once legendary bargains, are now pricing out most European and North American visitors.
Florencia Fiorentin, chief economist at Epyca Consultora, notes that for anyone with dollars or access to the official exchange rate, traveling abroad is ridiculously cheap. Meanwhile, staying in Argentina has essentially become a luxury good.
Where Are Argentines Going?
Chile takes the lead with nearly 22% of outbound trips for skiing and shopping. Brazil is close behind at roughly 20%, mostly for beaches in Rio and Búzios. Paraguay is also seeing a massive surge, with day-trip shopping sprees up 116% year-on-year.
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Even the credit card data is screaming this trend. Dollar-denominated card debt hit $761 million in January 2025, the highest level since 2018 and almost triple what it was a year earlier.
The Ghost Towns of Argentina’s Tourism
While Argentines pack planes and buses to head out, Argentina’s tourism gems are emptying. El Calafate and its famous glacier saw a 30% drop in foreign tourists in 2024, along with seven straight months of falling hotel occupancy. The winter ski season in Bariloche saw nearly 12% fewer overnight stays. Luxury lodges near Iguazú Falls and in Mendoza are reporting booking drops between 40% and 60%.
Experts call the situation catastrophic. Hotels are laying off staff, restaurants are closing on weekdays, and tour operators are selling off their buses just to survive.
The Macroeconomic Time Bomb
Every dollar an Argentine spends in Rio or Miami is a dollar the Central Bank does not earn, and reserves are already critically low. Economists warn that losing $11 to $13 billion in tourism outflows is simply unsustainable. At some point, the peso will have to adjust. That could mean an orderly devaluation, which risks reigniting inflation, or a disorderly crash that devastates savings.
Either way, the current model cannot last indefinitely. It is a strange dynamic where upper-middle-class Argentines enjoy the cheapest international vacations in decades while the domestic tourism industry collapses.
A Cruel Irony
Argentina possesses everything a country needs to be a tourism superpower, from glaciers and waterfalls to mountains, wine, and tango. Yet right now, the economics is making it impossible to capitalize on them. Yet with the peso priced so high, its own citizens are voting with their suitcases, and the rest of the world is simply staying home. Until that exchange rate disconnect is resolved, Argentina’s tourism crisis will continue to bleed dollars and wipe out jobs. It threatens to turn one of the continent’s greatest natural treasures into a luxury that even many foreigners just can’t afford anymore.