Travel and Tourism - Paraguay -Dissertation Writing Help
Background
HISTORY
The original
inhabitants of Paraguay, the Guaraní Amerindians, experienced their first
contact with the Europeans between 1526-1530, when an Italian in the service of
Spain, Sebastian Cabot, explored the land that is now Paraguay. Established in
1537, Asunción was Paraguay’s first permanent Spanish settlement and between
1541 to 1776 was the most important European centre in South America, outside
of Brazil. With vast areas of the continent now accessible from Asunción via
Paraguay’s river system network, Spanish cultural, political and religious
influence spread ever deeper into South America.
From 1811 up
until the mid-20th century, Paraguay saw successive rule by two periods of
dictators. Between 1811 and the 1930s, rule was held by autocratic land-owning
elites, the first and most famous – known as Paraguay’s founding father – being
José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia. It was under the rule of a later dictator
during this period – Francisco Solano López – that Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay attacked Paraguay in Latin America’s bloodiest ever war, the 1865-70
War of the Triple Alliance. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of
casualties and is still capable today of casting its political shadow.
It was the
aftermath of another later though equally nationally resonant war – the 1932-35
conflict with Bolivia – that saw power pass from the hands of the elite
land-owning dictators to a succession of military strongmen. The last of these
strongmen to emerge as leader was General Alfredo Stroessner, who seized power
in May 1954 and held control of the country until he too was toppled in 1989.
Four years later, free and fair elections were held in 1993 and have been held
since, with governments standing for a mandated five years. The last elections
held in August 2008 saw President Fernando Armindo Lugo Mendez elected, winning
with 40.8% of the vote.
GEOGRAPHY
Paraguay is a
landlocked South American country – to its north it has borders with Bolivia
and Brazil, to the east Brazil and Argentina, to the south Argentina, and the
west Bolivia and Argentina. Although landlocked, Paraguay is bordered and
crossed by a large riverine system, much of which is navigable. The two main
rivers are the Río Paraguay, the third-largest river in the western hemisphere,
and the Río Paraná. The Río Paraguay divides the country into two substantially
different south-eastern and north-western halves – the Eastern Paraguay, known
as the Paraneña region, and the Western Paraguay, known as the Chaco.
About 95% of
Paraguay’s population live in the subtropical Paraneña region, which consists
of heavily wooded highlands in the east that gradually slope down to fluvial
floodplains by the Río Paraguay. The tropical Chaco region is the
least-developed part of the country and occupies 60% of its area. It is a hot
immense lowland plain of 246,925 square kilometres, with a population density
of just 0.4/km2 and seasons that see extensive areas of desert in the winter
turn into marshland in the summer.
Market Characteristics
INTERNATIONAL
Almost 75% of all
2007 international arrivals are day visitors, the vast majority of whom are
likely to be crossing the border for an economically driven purchasing purpose.
Since the trip is mainly for economic purposes, the likelihood is that the
visitor will travel alone, will be of working age range, and mainly but not
predominantly male. In terms of stay-over arrivals, meanwhile, it is likely
that the purpose of visit will follow 2005 data, where most visited Paraguay
for leisure purposes, followed in importance by visiting friends and relatives
(VFR) and business.
Purpose of visit
Data from 2005
describing the purpose of visit for international arrivals show that 45% of
tourists came to Paraguay for leisure purposes; 34% came for VFR travel,
religion, health and others; and approximately 11% came for business. When
SENATUR applied these proportions to the 2007 stay-over arrivals figure they
calculated that about 187,000 tourists would have arrived for leisure and
holiday purposes and 48,000 for business in 2007. SENATUR regards these numbers
as low compared to the potential of the country.
Seasonality
FIGURE 1: Stay-over
tourist arrivals, by month, 2007
|
Month
|
Stay-over arrivals
|
|
|
|
|
December
|
36,518
|
|
November
|
34,496
|
|
October
|
35,918
|
|
September
|
36,858
|
|
August
|
42,145
|
|
July
|
41,981
|
|
June
|
30,402
|
|
May
|
26,774
|
|
April
|
30,742
|
|
March
|
30,809
|
|
February
|
31,543
|
|
January
|
37,516
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
415,702
|
SOURCE:
Tourism Masterplan 2008; SENATUR
The high season
for international stay-over arrivals in 2007 was during July and August, while
there was a mid-season peak over the year-end during December and January. Most
stay-over arrivals came in the months July to January, with February to June being
the lowest in numbers of arrivals.
Length of stay
At present,
average length of stay statistics are not collected by SENATUR. However, the
vast bulk of arrivals are day visitors from Brazil and Argentina, and in the
future, Paraguay can aim for average length of stays displayed in similar
situations by the main long-haul tourism-contributing nations. In Germany, the
average length of stay for a German outbound tourist travelling to Latin
America is 17 days, while from Spain, SENATUR can expect an average length of
stay of 8-9 days.
DOMESTIC
Purpose of visit
According to
SENATUR, the average Paraguayan domestic tourist goes on holiday mainly to
visit family. This is borne out by data from 2003 (latest available), which
show that the vast majority of Paraguayan nationals when on holiday in their
own country stayed with friends and family.
FIGURE 2: Number of
domestic stay-over tourists, by lodging type, 2003*
|
Lodging
|
Tourists
|
|
|
|
|
Family/friend's
house
|
1,173,680
|
|
Other
|
84,687
|
|
Hotel
|
38,983
|
|
Guesthouse
|
24,628
|
|
Camping
|
14,212
|
|
Rented house
|
93,41
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
1,345,531
|
Note: *latest
relevant data available
SOURCE:
Household Survey 2004, SENATUR
Seasonality
Data from 2003
also shows a major peak in domestic travel during December and January and a
smaller peak over April. In a heavily Catholic-influenced country, this
strongly suggests that Paraguayans travel in their own country mainly during
religiously significant holiday periods.
Length of stay
Data for domestic
length of stay are not collected by SENATUR. However, since the majority of
domestic visits are to friends and family and taken during religious periods,
visitors who are poorer will tend to stay longer while visitors who are richer
will make shorter two-to-three-day long weekend-type trips ie cash-rich,
time-poor.
