Finally, travel agents have been banned from dollar restrictions

Last Monday, when the provisions of the Central Bank (BCRA) on the expansion of the universe of companies with restrictions on access to the dollar were disclosed, alert several wholesale travel agencies. Especially given the imminent winter holidays, when the demand intensifies.

Given the uncertainty of having been reached by this measure, they have suspended the collection of their services in pesos, warning that they would only accept dollars. However, the matter was finally resolved yesterday when the body led by Miguel Pesce came out to clarify it the Tourism Code was exempt from the restrictions.

“There were a day or two where it wasn’t possible to trade, depending on the bank,” commented a market participant. “But I understand that they were normalizing the systems and now it’s normalized. There were a lot of agencies who preferred not to sell because they didn’t know if they would be able to pay the suppliers later, “he summed up.

It usually happens that wholesale agencies hire services from other international suppliers who have to pay for them in dollars. That is, the agency has to pay, for example, for the stay in a hotel abroad but receives pesos from its client and the Central releases the dollars to cancel that service. Therefore, the fear was that of being “barefoot” in business.

“On Monday and Tuesday, some wholesale agencies asked for payments to be made exclusively in dollars. But In yesterday’s publications of the Central Bank it is specified that the tourism code was exempted, for which everything is back to normal “, This was underlined by a source from AAVyT, the association that brings together travel agencies.

In the same sense, Despegar stressed that “today it works normally. There was some delay yesterday, but it has already been fixed, “a spokesperson commented when asked.

In the last few hours, with different texts, emails and alerts on social media with warnings from some companies have circulated. “We inform you that for reasons of public knowledge and until the new conditions of foreign trade are clarified from the date of the date and for at least 24 hours we will not receive payments in pesos. Please understand the situation, as soon as we are sure of new procedures we will return to normal “, announced the Mega Travel agency to its customers.

Agencies’ alerts came after Monday’s official ruling indicated that “services have been reached from import locations and companies have had to seek funding to acquire overseas supplies when they exceed up to 105% of total imports. during the past year “.

However, the provision made it clear that “SMEs will have a differential threshold – they will have a 115% increase cap over 2021 for those that imported up to $ 1 million in that year – and everything related to freight transport and tourism is excluded “, clarified.