Messi, Milei and Mickey Mouse are driving Argentina's tourists to United States

[LuckyLuke]

I am amazed by Argentine fascination with Miami. Yesterday I was filling the tank at a YPF gas station and started chatting with the attendant. I told him that I used to live in New Jersey and the only thing he asked me was how far it is from Miami!

It's a curious phenomenon. Almost nobody who asked where in the US I was from, could point Los Angeles on a map, but they all knew Miami. Which, kind of speaks in of itself that they are not really interested in the visiting the US an exotic international location insofar as just partying at the beach with a bunch of other Argentines so they can brag about it back home.

Imagine if American tourists decided to forego South Korea or Japan to go to Guam instead because it has a concentration of Americans or having no idea what the Caribbean is other than the US Virgin Islands. I suppose it's just a pop glamor cultural thing.

 

[Alby]

Most people carry around a mental map of the globe that is about 95% ocean. I've mentioned here before that acquaintances in my home country think I live in Mexico. That's because the US looms large in the culture (North America is probably about 3% of the 5% global landmass they see in their mind's eye). To the extent that they assimilated anything else about geography in the Western hemisphere, it is that anything south of the US border is Mexico.

 

[carride]

The original had a map of states visited. Cali, IL, TX, NY, and mostly FL. Also reading closer, only 413,000 of the 11 million international travelers visited the US

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-08/messi-mickey-mouse-and-a-strong-peso-drive-argentine-tourism-to-us?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1NDY2MzE2NCwiZXhwIjoxNzU1MjY3OTY0LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJUMEhLNUpHUEw0MTQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIyQjQxQzFFQjM1M0Y0QkY2OUY1MEI0RkY5OTEwQ0MxRSJ9.lxr0BueO0wJYMvdcB46iV3DFbLyDkIrvcFtbqUJfJQU

 

[Frinkiac8]

I think high school trips to Disney World have been a thing for decades...kind of a right of passage for a certain socioeconomic class.

I took my kids for the first time earlier this year and was amazed at how many Argentines there were...seemed like 1 in 4 people (just my skewed perception because I pick up the accent or spot a Messi jersey easily!). Many of the school groups dress alike to keep track of each other...imagine huge groups of kids running around with Argentina futbol jerseys!