LATIN AMERICA: RECORD TOURISM…
Written by thomas · Filed Under
Commercial
July 17, 2008
Is the headline in this week’s Latin Business Chronicle article by Joachim Bamrud – which we believe is a “must read”. The article covers winners in tourist arrivals and receipts. Panama leads the pack in arrivals and Uruguay leads in growth of tourism receipts. And the Dominican Republic has the region’s highest receipts ($4 billion in 2007) as a percentage of GDP with 11.1%. In total, Latin America received a record total of 68.6 million international arrivals in 2007 for an increase of 2.9% over 2006. Its tourism receipts grew by 9.7% to a record $58.9 billion which means that Latin America had the highest growth in the world in 2007except Asia. And higher than the world average of 5.6%.
Winners – Uruguay beat all other countries in the region with tourism receipts growth of 35.3% to $809 million. Argentina was second-best boosting tourism receipts by 29% to $4.3 billion. As far as arrival growth, as stated above, Panama led the way, with 1.1 million for a 30.8% growth. Costa Rica follows with 14.4% growth in arrivals to almost 2 million. Other arrival growth winners include Ecuador (up 13.4%), Colombia (up 13.2%) and Honduras (up 12.6%). Definitely tourism is playing an important role in both creating demand for air service, helping the economy and reducing poverty. For the complete article go to www.latinbusinesschronicle.com
Source: AvNews
Comments
