Porto Alegre, 12/12/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The Brazilian Association of Travel Agencies of Rio Grande do Sul says it expects a 50% increase in tourists from Argentina this summer (which begins in ten days).

According to the president of the association, Manoel Juarez Limada Silva, local prices are lower this year than they were last year, the dollar is cheaper and there has been an improvement in the economic situation in Argentina. All those factors will result in the best season in many years, he says.

Last year almost 125,000 tourists from Argentina travelled across the border by land into Rio Grande do Sul in December. That was 50% less than in 2001. (AB)