The critical security situation the country is going through has affected various sectors that contribute to the economy. One of them is tourism, which is estimated to have recorded losses of around $300 million this month, according to sector leaders.

But it is not only insecurity that has affected the tourism sector, there are also other factors, such as the power outage that affected last year, but which has been suspended for now until February 29. Now the possibility of a reversal is based on the approaching holidays, Carnival, February 11 and 12, as well as the flexibility of the curfew due to the current state of emergency with traffic lights.

According to Holbach Muñetón, president of the Federation of Provincial Tourist Chambers of Ecuador, domestic tourism generates 3,000 million dollars a year, while international tourism generates 2,200 million dollars, which would add 5,200 million dollars between the two areas, but the current panorama It represented a blow, especially when the 9. In January, a raid took place on TC Televisión. “It was a very strong impact that reduced productivity and that’s why they made calculations of about $300 million in losses across the country,” he explained.

For Josel Andrade, a researcher associated with the Ecuadorian Institute of Political Economy (IEEP), although the end of blackouts is extremely necessary and states of emergency are part of the strategy to restore security in Ecuador, it should not lose sight of the fact that every action has an opportunity cost, or in other words, states of emergency and curfews are not neutral, and although in a cost-benefit analysis they appear to be part of the necessary measures to return to normality, it still has an impact on an important sector of the economy.

According to Francisco Jarrín, president of the Chamber of Industry of Guayaquil, the decision to suspend the outage was “excellent” and the work was carried out as normal, and by next week they hope to have the January report ready.

For his part, Muñetón, who is also the president of the Tourism Chamber of Guayas, indicated that the activity is recovering and that they are between 10% and 15% to reach the figures of 2019, but this was not possible, because apart from the current situation, last year the political situation was added due to the decree of crucified death, and before that there was a pandemic, an increase in the number of murderers, events in prisons, extortion, kidnappings, among others that affected . “These are all strikes that were not on our radar, nobody’s, so what we want now is peace, to produce…”, he pointed out.

Messages La Fitur, in Madrid, improves the tourist environment in Ecuador

When President Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency on January 8, Muñeton said that initially the market “reduced, slowed down” and that “production reached zero” and companies had minimal sales, but that panorama changed with messages that the Executive issued at Fitur 2024, in Madrid and the operations of the armed forces. “I feel that this is motivation for the businessman to continue,” he emphasized.

For his part, Andrade indicated that focusing or signaling the curfew means recognizing that in Ecuador we are facing different circumstances and therefore not only allows law enforcement to direct efforts, but also allows businesses and companies to work and function. work in these types of schedules.

According to Muñetón, Esmeraldas is one of the provinces most affected by a situation that is not new, but the problems have been going on for a long time. Although there is optimism, the tourism leader and businessman warned that they still have a long way to go to return to pre-pandemic levels, and there is also concern about the economic factor. “There are cases of businessmen who do not have enough to pay their full salary, IESS, SRI, debts with public banks, so they asked Asobance, the National Financial Corporation (CFN), to see what can be done, but they did not have an answer, and the Ministry of Tourism suspended the technical security desk,” said the head of the Federation.

For his part, the researcher associated with the IEEP indicated that it is important to note that every economy is intrinsically interconnected, in such a way that curfews and limited working hours, although they initially seem to affect tourism, hospitality and night business , eventually affecting other sectors, the economy. “We hope that the return to normality is very close because this is part of what is necessary for the economic reactivation of our country,” he said.