Senatur - Secretaria Nacional de Turismo

Paraguay's national tourism authority

The Secretaria Nacional de Turismo, known as Senatur, is the agency of the Paraguayan executive responsible for tourism policy. It was created by Law 1388 of 1998, which moved tourism out of the public works ministry, where a directorate had handled it for decades, and gave the sector an institution of its own. The secretariat reports to the presidency and is led by an executive secretary who holds the rank of minister. Its duties combine promotion, regulation and visitor assistance: the institution markets Paraguay as a destination, keeps the registers that formalize the sector, trains service providers and runs the offices where travelers can ask for help in person.

The head office is at Palma 468, between Alberdi and 14 de Mayo streets, in the center of Asuncion. The switchboard answers at +595 21 494 110, and the building sits a short walk from the government palace and the bay front.

Assistance and information for travelers

Turista Roga centers

Senatur operates visitor centers under the name Turista Roga, a Guarani phrase meaning the tourist's house. The main center occupies the ground floor of the Palma street building and opens every day from 07:00 to 19:00, a schedule that includes weekends and holidays. Staff hand out maps and printed guides, advise on routes and transport, and receive complaints against tourism providers. The Guarani name is deliberate in a country where most of the population speaks both official languages. Additional Turista Roga points operate outside the capital, including in the border cities that receive most road arrivals from Argentina and Brazil.

Statistics and public information

The institution publishes the official figures of the sector through its national tourism observatory. Reports cover international arrivals by point of entry, average stay and spending, hotel occupancy and the results of border surveys, and the figures feed an annual statistical yearbook. The series are used by businesses sizing the market as well as by other state bodies. The website also carries the transparency sections required of Paraguayan public institutions, with budget execution, contracts and staffing information available for download, alongside a news section that documents the daily activity of the secretariat.

Destinations and routes promoted

Promotion is organized around routes that group nearby attractions. The most prominent is the Ruta Jesuitica in the south, built around the ruins of the Jesuit missions of La Santisima Trinidad de Parana and Jesus de Tavarangue in Itapua department. Both sites have been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1993 and are among the most visited monuments in the country. The route continues into towns such as San Cosme y Damian, where a colonial sundial and an astronomy center recall the scientific work of the missions.

Other guides cover Encarnacion, whose carnival and river beaches on the Parana draw the largest summer crowds; Ciudad del Este and the Itaipu dam, a binational hydroelectric plant among the largest in the world, which receives visitors on guided tours; Lake Ypacarai with the resort town of San Bernardino; and the craft towns of Central department, among them Itaugua, where nanduti lace is made, and Aregua, known for its ceramics. Day trips from Asuncion follow the older Circuito de Oro, a loop through the historic towns of the Cordillera hills, while the Camino Franciscano strings together settlements founded by Franciscan missionaries, with their carved wooden altars and church museums. The Chaco, the sparsely populated western half of the country, appears in material aimed at nature travel, with its wildlife, its salt lagoons visited by migratory birds and the Mennonite colonies around Filadelfia. Protected areas in the eastern region feature as well, among them Ybycui national park, which preserves both forest and the remains of an early national iron foundry.

Rural and community tourism receives specific support. The Posadas Turisticas program helps families in small towns fit out guest rooms to a common standard, creating lodging in places without hotels and keeping visitor spending in the local economy.

Sport has become part of the promotion strategy. Since 2025 Paraguay hosts a round of the World Rally Championship, the Rally del Paraguay, run on gravel roads of Itapua department around Encarnacion, and Senatur coordinates the tourism side of the event, from accommodation capacity to visitor information.

Regulation and quality

Tourism providers in Paraguay must enroll in Registur, the national register kept by Senatur. Registration covers hotels and other lodging, travel agencies, tour operators, guides and tourist transport. The register is public, so a traveler can confirm that an agency or guide is formally authorized before paying. Alongside the register, the national tourism quality system defines service standards and certifies businesses that meet them, and the secretariat runs training courses for guides, hotel staff and gastronomy workers, often together with municipalities and trade associations. A national master plan for the development of the sector sets medium term targets for infrastructure, training and promotion, and the website publishes the plan alongside the tourism regulations in force.

Complaints about registered providers can be filed at any Turista Roga center or through the channels listed on the website. The secretariat also represents Paraguay at international tourism fairs and before regional bodies, and it maintains a separate promotional site aimed at foreign audiences under the Visit Paraguay brand.

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