At the first press conference of summer 2023, Governor Axel Kicillof announced on Wednesday the launch of the third edition of the free graduate trips for high school seniorswho will be able to travel to different tourist spots in the province at no cost, financed by the Buenos Aires State.
“We are launching the third edition of the end-of-year trips for 2023, so it is a policy that is consolidating and that the offer is improving. There are many municipalities where this program is already being enjoyed,” said Kicillof from Miramar, where he led a conference with the Minister of Production, Augustus Coastthe president of the Cultural Institute, florence saintoutand the mayor of General Alvarado, Sebastian Ianantuony.
The president defended the program and assured that it is “a policy attacked from ignorance and, sometimes, from prejudice” but what “it was tremendously successful”. He also considered that it contemplates “on the one hand, the benefit for those who enjoy the trip and, on the other, this promotes employment, work, economic activity as sensitive and seasonal as tourism. We managed to extend the season thanks to the trips of graduates”.
Minister Costa, for his part, specified that the trips of graduates allowed 220,000 students in their last year of high school to make their end-of-year trip last year, which caused the tourist season to start earlier in the province. “We are facing a season that started with everything: before the summer we already came with an unusual influx of tourists and that has to do with the end-of-year program and that 220,000 students travel to 12 tourist destinations in the province,” He affirmed and assured that for the government “it is a policy that allowed equalizing rights.”
He also specified that “less than one in four graduates was in a position to make their end-of-year trip, in a position to pay for it” and assured that the program generated a movement of 7 billion pesos in 208 tourist providers of all items travel-related, ranging from hotels and gastronomy to handicrafts and gift shops.
“It is a State policy that is here to stay that has benefits for those who travel but also for those who live from this activity. Almost 7 billion pesos were invested in more production and more work in this program,” he said.
The end-of-year trips included in the program last 4 days and 3 nights, have two daily excursions, have all expenses included -transfers, hotels, two daily excursions and one night, gastronomy and insurance- and travel to different tourist destinations of the province of Buenos Aires, which also allows promoting cultural and commercial activities for youth tourism in different municipalities of the province.
The program contemplates the bonus of the trip for a father or a mother as a companion for every twenty students, and the possibility of unifying trips in the case of small classes.
