Argentina Sees Comeback of Tango for Tourists
Friday, 22/02/2008
Tango impresario Juan Fabbri can't get a table at the 500-seat dinner theater he runs. That's because Esquina Carlos Gardel in Buenos Aires is packed with tourists every night.
Fabbri's clients pay $80 to $160 each to slice into steaks while watching a movie about the 19th century roots of tango, Argentina's signature melancholy music and dance. After dinner, they view a dance show with orchestra.
The theater fills up every night of the year except for Christmas Eve, when it's closed, Fabbri said. "If I want to dine in my own joint, I have to eat standing up," he says.
He and business people like him are enjoying a resurgence in the popularity of tango in Argentina's capital, on the back of a boom in tourism.
Tango is a $450 million per year industry and accounts for 10 percent of entertainment spending in Buenos Aires ?not bad for a century-old dance form competing with movies, video arcades, stadium rock and raves.
Theaters like Fabbri's employ choreographers, dancers, musicians and costumers, all contributing to a so-called tango economy that is growing 25 percent a year – triple the pace of overall economic expansion.
Argentina has benefited from a sudden jump in tourism after a deep economic crisis in 2002 that saw the peso currency fall sharply, making travel to Argentina cheaper.
That led to a surge in demand for tango dinner theaters, which cater almost exclusively to visitors from Asia, Europe and all over the Americas.
February 22, 2008
Posted in: South America