SPECIAL REPORT
TOURISM TRENDS
IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, 2019
BY LÍA RODRIGUEZ DE LA VEGA [1] AND MATÍAS IGLESIAS [2] *
D
emand for Latin America is on the rise, standing
out more and more as a tourist destination. The
region has an estimated growth of 2.1% in 2019,
although with quite a heterogeneity between countries (BBVA
Research, Unit of South America, 2018), having received 217
million tourists in 2018, with interannual tourism growth of
3% (UNWTO, 2019).
The World Tourism Organization estimates that by 2027,
Latin America will receive 78.2 million tourists, generating
82 billion dollars for the local economy. While the main
market of the countries of this region is domestic tourism,
the second is that of tourists from North America and Europe,
observing a gradual increase of Chinese tourists (Baccino,
2019), which opens the spectrum of work to attract more
Asian tourists to the region.
Latin America is outstanding for those tourists in search
of nature and adventure, but also for those whose objective is
the knowledge of the history and culture of the destinations,
as well as the local gastronomy (Axon, 2018). While North
American tourists tend to value their proximity to countries
like Mexico, European tourists choose destinations in this
region because they consider them exotic and relatively cheap,
being the most popular countries Mexico, Cuba, Dominican
Republic and Brazil, which are among the 20 best destinations
outside Europe (Trekk Soft, 2019).
Tourism to Latin America and the Caribbean is expected
to continue to grow in the coming years. Thus, governments
develop travel promotion programs and incentives in
countries such as Peru, Colombia and Chile (initiatives as
Procolombia, Chile Travel, Chile es TUYO, etc.). In 2016,
Colombia created an offi cial WeChat account seeking to
promote the country’s tourism sector, while the National
Tourism Promotion Institute of Argentina (Inprotur) partnered
with the Alibaba Fliggy and the National Tourism Board of
Peru developed a website in Chinese. Similarly, the countries
of the region regularly participate in world trade fairs that
include Asia, although there are, however, challenges to
overcome, such as distance, connectivity, language, visa
restrictions in some cases and logistical challenges (Baccino,
2019; Trekk Soft, 2019).
As far as outbound tourism is concerned, Latin American
tourists mainly go to destinations in the Americas (as indicated
by World Travel Monitor, the trips of these tourists in the
region increased 13%, to Europe 5%, while Asia received 2%
more Latin American tourists) (ITB Berlin, 2019).
In the survey developed by Trekk Soft (2019) between
operators and tourism resellers, it is observed that they
off er their tours and activities mainly in Spanish (36%) and
English (32%) and only 3.2% in Mandarin. At the same time,
they point out among the key trends they observe: the last-
minute reservation, sustainability, unaccompanied travelers
- impacting this issue especially on women, with Cuba as
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 9 • September 2019, Noida • 21