Development of Thermalism in Bahía Blanca (Argentina): An Opportunity in the Post-COVID-19 Context

GAMBAROTA, DANIELA MELISA; LONDON SILVIA

Workshop; XIII Workshop on "Tourism: Economics and Management. Tourists as Consumers, Visitors and Travelers; 2021

Facultad de Ciencias Económicas de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata y Universidad de la República (Uruguay).

At present, tourism is considered as a constituent part of the territories capable of supporting development processes. That is why, local spaces, in particular processes, so in particular, the local spaces take the initiative to place value on patrimonial resources with the objective to energize their territories thanks to the increasing segmentation and widening of demand. In addition to the above, the irruption of COVID-19 has caused impacts on tourism and travelers, who modified their preferences and will surely continue to do so and look for new attributes when choosing a destination.The presence of a thermal resource in the city of Bahía Blanca is an opportunity in the current adverse context left by the pandemic. The modality of health tourism, more precisely the thermalism, will probably be one of the most demanded options by tourists to relax and disconnect after the long period of confinement and the measured adopted in Argentina, in particular, to stop the expansion of the virus (Preventive and Compulsory Social Isolation, Argentine Decree 297/2020. DECNU-2020-297-APN-PTE) that has been passed in Argentina in particular.Methodologically, a bibliographic review of relevant concepts, a characterization, and an analysis of the aforementioned locality were carried out to define what elements exist, evaluate the strengths or distinctions it possesses in order to achieve a transformative territorial strategy in it. In the words of Madoery (2016: 10), "No matter how well designed a project is, it is useless if it is not "situated" in the specific context of the actors of a territory and if it is not properly supported by the relevant knowledge, in the territorial intelligence needed to guide the development process."In this way, Bahía Blanca has competitive advantages thanks to the presence of natural and cultural thermal heritage added to the tendency to choose destinations of proximity. Making use of them would allow this town not only to quickly return to tourism normality in the post-pandemic context, but also to boost tourism resources that are currently underused.