Uruguay offers free petrol to lure tourists from Argentina

The Uruguayan government will give Argentine tourists free fuel as part of a campaign to counter a border blockade by environmentalists from the neighbouring country.

As part of a new tourist promotion campaign, visitors to Uruguay will receive 30 liters of gasoline or diesel free from petrol stations owned by the state energy company ANCAP, between Jan. 15 and Feb. 28, the country's economy minister, Danilo Astroi, and tourism minister, Hector Lescano, told reporters.

Another scheme allows tourists to buy discount road toll fees from supermarkets, and a third will return Uruguay's 9 percent value added tax to tourists who use credit cards.

The measures "are a strong incentive for tourists," Lescano said.

Environmentalists from the Argentine city of Gualeguaychu have blockaded the international bridge linking the two nations protesting a cellulose plant that is being built in Fray Bentos, which is 310 km northeast of Uruguay's capital Montevideo.

The Uruguayan government estimates that the blockade has cost Uruguay 500 million U.S. dollars in trade and tourism in the 70 days the bridge has been shut this year.

Source: Xinhua