Tango and Tourism in Argentina

The revival of Tango music has caused much more interest towards Argentinean culture. According to experts, it has been crucial for 4 million people visiting the country in 2007.

“From the strictly economic point of view, tourism is becoming a very important and profitable activity in Argentina. The country is welcoming about 4 million visitors a year, and Tango is one of the causes of that phenomenon”, explains Economic History Professor Ruben Berenblum.

This teacher of Buenos Aires National University gave a special course at Salamanca (Spain) called “Society and Economy in the evolution of Argentinean Tango”. In an interview he gave to EFE, he made reference to “the slow decadence, almost disappearance, of Tango in the middle 90s”.

According to Berenblum, this decline “is not an isolated fact”. Other musical genres like jazz, Brazil’s samba or bolero (Tango’s brothers) have also gone through “building processes”, having to adapt to “international features and habits, in each case”.

However, Tango has lately been recovered as a “rebuilt genre”. There are a number of places in Buenos Aires where young people are renewing it and placing it closer to all those who love dancing. Professor Berenblum has referred to the National Tango Academy, with office in Buenos Aires, and also to many night clubs “where every night Tango is danced thinking about tourists”.

Berenblum preferred not to give exact numbers on incomes generated by this activity, but he assured that the number of visitors had been multiplied by ten in a very short period of time.

He emphasized that “cultural offer, landscape and gastronomy” are the most popular issues claimed by visitors, not forgetting the places “where people go to watch and listen to our music”