Tourism in Latin America has recovered by 85%, driven mainly by young people and sustainable tourismand it is expected that by 2024 this economic activity will reach pre-pandemic levels, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
“Latin America is at 85% and the Committee of Experts once again estimates that 2024 will be the year of total recovery of tourism,” the director of Tourism for the Americas of the UNWTO said this Monday, September 25, in an interview with EFE. , the Argentinian Gustavo Santoswithin the framework of the inauguration of the seventh National Tourism Convention (Conatur) of Panama.
Santos explained that the recovery of the tourism sector in the region follows the global trend: “We are seeing a strong recovery in tourism worldwide, (but) it is not the same on all continents, “Today the average is 80% compared to the pre-pandemic situation, that is, in 2019, which was the strongest year.”
“The Middle East has recovered above the pandemic, Europe is at 90%, Africa is at 88% and America at 85%. However, Asia is at 54%. The late reintegration of the Chinese market, which has a great influence on the Asian market, has produced this delay,” he added.
According to UNWTO data published in January, more than 900 million tourists around the world made international trips in 2022double that in 2021, although that figure still remains at 63% of pre-pandemic levels.
This year, according to figures from that organization’s website, international tourist arrivals reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023 around the world. And an estimated 235 million tourists traveled internationally in the first three months.
In Santos’ opinion, the recovery of tourism “has been quite even in the world, except in Asia (…), and it has to do with a qualitative concept: it is a revenge for life.”
Tourism of the future must have a focus on sustainability
As explained by the regional director, “in qualitative surveys, 80% of young people – that is, 8 out of 10 millennial and generation Z young people – state that they prefer to travel to buy a good; the trip is in the aspiration of self-education of people”.
Santos explained that “85% of those interviewed, also the youngest, are proposing a positive relationship with nature and the environment, (because) they are naturally sustainable, it is not that they have to be forced to be sustainable, (they already are)” .
“They have a relationship behavior with the residents, they aspire to integrate with the communities they visit, they seek identity answers. A much more responsible tourist in the world has been born and we must prepare to satisfy their needs,” he noted.
“Latin America is the planet’s reserve of sustainability and, Therefore, I am convinced that it will be the provisional territory of tourism of the future,” said Santos.
And he concluded that he is also sure that “Latin America and the Caribbean It is the space (that) has an enormous opportunity to turn tourism into one of the main factors of development of its people, of consolidation of peace, integration, their reactions and, above all, a chance at life for the people. people where they have their roots.
Source: Larepublica
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