With the closure of borders and the impossibility of implementing a protocol on large beaches
In our country, we are turning to novel solutions. How does technology help us to see our cities with new eyes? Can an app tell us how crowded a beach is? What is happening with border closures and Argentine property owners?
Rediscover Uruguay with Design Cities
Montevideo and Punta del Este have been included in the guides of Design Cities, a digital platform with itineraries for urban explorers. Design Cities is a Uruguayan development that offers an innovative concept, with contemporary, geolocated and interactive guides, which allow visitors to discover the destination in a totally different way. This was explained to El País by Gabriela Pallares, leader of the team that curated the content and founder of Ministerio de Diseño.
The guides for Montevideo and Punta del Este are now available and the Colonia guide has been announced for January 2021. These itineraries offer curated, organized and geolocated information, with circuits to be carried out on different days.
What can we find in these guides? A wide range of options: workshops by artists and creatives, hidden fine dining restaurants, newly opened inns, museums, designer shops and places of architectural value.
The app of the summer: alerts about very crowded beaches
In November, Tourism Minister Germán Cardoso explained to El País that there will be recommendations but not a protocol for visiting the beaches, because it would be impossible to control. “Our coastal system is different from the beaches in Europe, which are coves that are no more than three or four blocks long and have an entrance gate.”
Faced with this situation, Rocha is working on developing an app that would prevent crowds and potential infections on its beaches. Mayor Alejo Umpiérrez explained that they are looking to develop an app that “allows us to generate a beach population density, so that people can know which one is the busiest and move to another one.”
The mayor explained that in case of crowds, the protocol is persuasion and awareness. “We have to bet on people's awareness. We are betting on going back to March, locking ourselves in, or having a life as close to normal as possible if we take care of ourselves. That is why social behavior is a very important factor,” added Umpiérrez.
Will Argentines who own property be able to travel this summer?
Our country remains closed to tourism, which prevents Argentines who own property from entering. At the moment, only those with very specific reasons can enter the country: diplomatic, pilots, work, economic, business or judicial matters.
Alejandra Covello, owner of Covello Properties, explains that “the great thing about this whole thing is that there are a lot of people motivated to buy and stay longer. They rent for seven or eight months, willing to stay. Maybe they can stay there, but you have to prove that you are coming to stay and not to vacation.”
The closure of borders and the lack of Argentines changed the dynamics of rentals in Uruguay. Baltasar Urrestarazu, manager of new businesses at the real estate portal InfoCasas, explains that the occupation of properties is maintained by Uruguayans themselves who were unable to go on vacation in the season of July, August and September, and now rent houses for the summer for up to three months, something that was not common.
