Some months ago, I published one entry (this one) about the touristic exploitation of the Che Guevara figure in Alta Gracia, Cordoba, a city he lived in for a good part of his life. Now, I’ve found out, through Diario de Cuyo, that the Che figure is still motivating new touristic projects.

Citing:

Alta Gracia’s Tourism Office (in Cordoba) has started a project to capture the growing number of visitors that are arriving to our country to visit locations linked to the emblematic figure of the Che, without overlooking the interest of local tourists in knowing his story.

The name of this touristic promotion will be “Che Guevara’s tracks in Argentina”, and the events that will be held by the Nation’s Tourism Office will be complemented in the cordobese city of Alta Gracia with visits to the former house (currently, Museum) of the Che Guevara.

The project establishes the argentinean cities the Che has lived in or has been related to, such as Rosario (place of birth), Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Misiones and Alta Gracia, and the Tourism Office of the Nation has organised meetings in which officers of these institutions will participate.

Facing this, and to get more information, some minutes ago I sent a brief questionnary to Alta Gracia’s Touism Office in Cordoba (turismo@altagracia.gov.ar) with a series of questions in order to obtain more information to share with you. The questions are:

What is the project “Che Guevara’s tracks in Argentina” about? What official organisms and representatives of the private sector are participating?

The note I read talks about a project in which other cities where Che Guevara lived in are participating. How is this coordination? What kind of joint actions will the cities carry out?

In previous occasions many people from Alta Gracia shared their opinions about the topic (in the spanish version of the original article). If any of you believe there’s something else that should be asked, suggest it in the comments area, and I will send it in a second email to Alta Gracia’s Tourism Office. I find it a very interesting topic since, according to the note I found, this new project linked to Che Guevara is part of a national project that involves Rosario and Buenos Aires, which speaks of a dimension much farther from a local initiative.

As soon as I get more news, I’ll update this note in the blog.

Take a picture playing chess with el Che in the Sierra Maestra cave and at a machine guns nest with guerrillas.

Is this a touristic proposal? Yes, it’s the one being made, to attract visitors, at “La cueva del Che” bar, located in Alta Gracia, Córdoba, Argentina. Guevara lived during his infancy and teenage years in Alta Gracia, since his asthma condition made his family decide to move there, being the weather drier than in Buenos Aires. The house where he and his family lived at is now the Museo Casa Ernesto “Che” Guevara, another initiative that counts with the official support of the Alta Gracia’s authorities.

The fact that Ernesto Guevara has lived part of his life in Alta Gracia is, of course, an excellent opportunity for the tourism market, always looking for the difference when building the relevance of a destination. Now, well, is any strategy valid? does it make sense to make a “spectacle” of the visit to a bar and in this way use the figure of the Che Guevara? Do they consider the visit not attractive enough, otherwise? I remember when I was in Los Angeles, I visited a wax museum where you could take a picture with Captain Kirk, but that’s pure showbusiness. Can we do the same with a political proposal?

Strictly speaking, yes, of course you can, but it’s also possible to question these proposals.

“La cueva del Che” bar is located at Chile 154, Alta Gracia, Cordoba, Argentina. The Museo Casa Ernesto “Che” is located at Avellaneda 501, in the same city. More info about this last place can be found at Alta Gracia’s website. If anyone has visited any of these places, you can leave your contribution in the comments. By the way, the brochure of “La cueva del Che” was distributed by the Alta Gracia stand at the International Fair of Tourism held two weeks ago in Buenos Aires.

You know it: tourism marketing sells destinations by remarking some kind of easily identifiable attribute. Buenos Aires is tango, Brazil is samba, etc. Some may think such promotion empoverishes the destinations and eliminates many location’s diversities. But the actors of the touristic field can defend themselves. They’ll say “you have to promote the destination somehow” and that implies to define a series of values to be communicated. Much of this could be seen at the Feria Internacional de Turismo - FIT (International Fair of Tourism) that took place this last weekend at Buenos Aires: tango dancers at the Buenos Aires stand, salsa dancers at the Cuba stand, samba dancers at the Brazil stand…

But let’s go out of the “touristic essentialism” (that fiction by which nations have “typical forms of being”). Let’s turn to a more practical point of view: how useful is it for the public to go to these kind of events?

First, we have to remember that the main interest of the FIT is to relate the actors of the tourism field to allow them to close deals. In second place, there’s the public. What was there for them? A strong presence of argentinean provinces, even those who traditionally hadn’t enforced tourism in the past, Brazil and Uruguay. A huge number of brochures were handed to the public, and you could see people walking around carrying large bags with all sorts of papers. In particular, my interest in maps made me look for them everywhere, and found very interesting presents at the Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay and some argentineand provinces stands. For those who wanted to visit a determined destination, there was a well set up informative structure, including hotel costs in different areas, or at least some phone number or email for contact. The only problem is that the fair was held a little late, almost ends of november, and by this time most people who go on vacations have already decided their destination. But it is work that can show its results next year, when tourists decide where to go. By the way, there were also U.S.A, Europe and Asia stands.

I still have a mountain of maps, brochures and diverse ads carefully bagged and I should probably sit down sometime to look at them all and decide which things are worth keeping. Seeing a big number of destinations in one place, besides, allows us to observe the bets made the different actors in the tourism market. With a more expensive dollar rate in relation to the rest of the region, many argentineans still find it too expensive to travel abroad. For this reason, there still is an interesting possibility for the argentinean provinces to catch local travellers. Everything indicates this summer will be very busy, with a large number of people, locals and foreigners, moving around argentinean territory.

Now, is it worth going? Surely, most of the brochures are worthless, but there’s a certain number of information that will be really useful. For example, you’ll be able to get maps and many references about hotels and lodges in certain places. Which is good information worth keeping to be used when we decide to visit those destinations.

I’ve made a small photo album about the event which can be seen at my gallery (still under slow construction, by the way; spanish only).