The central focus of the meeting was the Concordia Airport, a key infrastructure for logistical, tourist, and commercial development. Municipalities from the Concordia, Federación, and Colón departments participated.
Concordia hosted an important meeting that brought together mayors and authorities from the municipalities of Federación, Colón, and Concordia, within the framework of the so-called “Salto Grande Region Working Table,” a space conceived for dialogue, cooperation, and shared planning.
This meeting was held as part of the process of strengthening regional integration, with the objective of building a collaborative agenda that promotes joint initiatives, consolidates institutional ties, and fosters associative work among local governments.
The Salto Grande Region is a strategic territory of the Argentine Litoral, articulated by the Uruguay River and with a common identity forged from history, tourism, production, and culture. On this occasion, the central focus was the Concordia Airport, a key infrastructure for the logistical, tourist, and commercial development of the region, promoted under the guidelines of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The meeting was promoted by Mayor Francisco Azcué, who highlighted the value of inter-municipal cooperation: “We continue working under this idea of regionalization, promoting Salto Grande as we have been doing since 2024 when we were at the International Tourism Fair.”
It was there that he maintained that “we are convinced that when we come together and work in this way, we are better. We have enormous potential with important attractions that go beyond the natural ones of each place, as there are others that are comprehensive, such as wineries, rural tourism, or fishing,” which is why we consider that the new Airport “will be a very important tool for everyone.”
For his part, the Mayor of Federación, Ricardo Bravo, valued the joint work as a strategy to boost the region as a whole. “I believe it is fundamental to be able to meet and that from now on this is the beginning of work that can be consolidated over time, thinking that very soon our airport—and I say our airport because we must take it as such—will soon be operational, and it will be very important that we can amalgamate a regional tourism proposal. That is the path that will empower us all.”
Andrea Imoberdorff, Mayor of Los Charrúas, emphasized rural growth and the opportunities that open up from an integrated regional vision. “Los Charrúas are growing. We are betting heavily on rural growth that is different. That is what most of the mayors talked about in this meeting; each one contributes from the locality they come from with different issues and diversity. The airport will be one more work tool that will open doors to tourism, commerce, and the export of our products.”
Meanwhile, the Mayor of San José, Gustavo Bastián, highlighted the impact of tourism as an engine for development, work, and movement, and in that sense, “the airport will give an extra push to all those opportunities, opening possibilities for the province of Entre Ríos and the Uruguay coast.”
The Secretary of Productive Development of the Municipality of Concordia and president of the Aerocommercial Development Entity of the Concordia Airport (E.D.A.A.C.), Federico Schattenhofer, reviewed the different stages taking place for the Airport to begin operations, for which progress is being made in different management efforts: on one hand, the authorization by the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) once the corrections detected in the last inspection have been made, as well as the acquisition of the fire truck that will allow the arrival of commercial flights.
Finally, the Undersecretary of Tourism, Laureano Schvartzman, highlighted the different experiences that have been developed together with EMCONTUR and municipalities of the region regarding tourism promotion, to which he proposed that these actions be worked on with more actors so that the proposal represents all the attractions that this part of the province has to offer.
The day concluded with a tour of the Concordia Airport facilities, where the authorities agreed on the importance of fully integrating it into regional strategies, both tourist and productive, consolidating a joint development model that enhances the diversity and wealth of the entire Salto Grande region. The continuity of this working table was proposed to achieve the initial objectives and those of future meetings.
Present were the Mayor of Villa del Rosario, Vanina Perini; the Mayor of Santa Ana, Rogelio Zanandrea; the Secretary of Tourism of Colón, Federico Escher; the Secretary of Government of La Criolla, Antonio Panozzo; the Director of Culture and Tourism of Puerto Yeruá, Andrés Boni; among other authorities.