The Tourism Promotion Fund has the aim of increasing by 100 thousand the number of visitors that annually arrive in the country, a rise that would be determined by the development of advertising campaigns in five areas.
In 2018, the entry of tourists through the main ports of entry to the country was 2,480,190, according to official figures. Therefore, the arrival of 100,000 more tourists would be equivalent to a 5% annual increase.
For Panama's tourism businessmen, the lack of government capacity to give continuity to the industry's plans is one of the main barriers to the growth of the activity in the future.
Although in 2018, the expenditure of tourists in the country totaled $4,605 million, surpassing by 3.3% that recorded in 2017, the sector estimates that more than 60 thousand jobs have been lost in the last three years.
Although between 2017 and 2018 the average spending of tourists in Costa Rica fell 14%, businessmen estimate that the country has the capacity to absorb more demand.
Figures from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) specify that in the last two years the average expenditure made by tourists who arrive in the country decreased by $226, going from $1,561 in 2017 to $1,335 in 2018, and the stay per person remains around 12 nights.
After nearly 100,000 Mexican tourists visited Costa Rica in 2018, this year the authorities plan to intensify the country's promotion in Mexico's main cities.
According to the latest estimates, this year about 508,000 Mexicans would be considering vacationing in Costa Rica.
In 2018, the number of international tourists who arrived in the countries of the region fell 2% compared to 2017, in contrast to the increases of 4% and 3% recorded in North and South America, respectively.
According to the report of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) presented on January 21, the results recorded last year in Central America are partly because of behavior in some countries, as in the cases of Panama and Nicaragua were recorded declines in tourism.
After reporting a 16% year-on-year increase in revenues generated by this sector in El Salvador in 2018, a 13% growth is expected for this year.
According to authorities of the Ministry of Tourism (MITUR) for this year is expected that more than 2.6 million tourists visit El Salvador, representing a 6.2% increase over what was reported in 2018.
Regarding the income generated by the sector, MITUR forecasts that in 2019 the income from tourist activities of foreigners in the country will reach $1,660 million, 12.7% more than the $1,473 million registered last year.
At the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018, touristic companies in Nicaragua were reporting a good performance, but the political situation in the country has generated a crisis that is still unsolved.
In 2017, tourism generated $840 million in revenue for the Nicaraguan economy, 31% more than in 2016, growth that improved the companies' expectations at the beginning of the year, since in the first quarter of 2018 the forecasts were that by the end of this year revenues could reach $900 million.
From January to October of this year, 5.4 million tourists arrived in the country, 6% more than the figure reported for the same period in 2017.
The cumulative arrival of non-resident visitors by air in the January-October 2018 totaled 5,424,399 travelers, an increase of 317,247 additional tourists over the same period last year, equivalent to a 6.2% growth.
In the first eight months of the year, Panama received 1.65 million tourists, 2% less than those reported in the same period in 2017.
According to the country's official figures, between the first eight months of 2017 and the period from January to August of this year, tourist arrivals fell from 1.69 million to 1.65 million. This negative behavior strengthens the trend that has shown throughout the year.
From January to September of this year, the Dominican Republic registered the arrival of 5 million tourists, 6% more than the figure reported in the same period in 2017.
The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic reported that the influx of non-resident visitors in the period January-September 2018 registered the historic figure of 5,009,417 passengers, being the first time that this number of non-resident travelers is reached during the first nine months of the year, arriving 297,931 additional travelers compared to the same period of 2017, representing an accumulated year-on-year growth of 6.3%.
In accordance with what was reported during 2018, in the first seven months of the year Panama received 1.48 million tourists, 2% of those reported in the same period of 2017.
According to the latest figures from the General Comptroller, between January and July 2017 and the same period of this year, the number of visitors with tourist purposes who arrived in the country fell from one million 504 thousand to one million 475 thousand.
The union has reported that five months after the outbreak of the social and political crisis in Nicaragua, the country has lost about 68,000 of the 120,000 jobs generated by the sector.
The National Chamber of Tourism (Canatur) presented a report highlighting the impact of the country's social and political crisis on the tourism sector.
During the first seven months of the year, the entry of 1.4 million tourists was reported, 13% more than the 1.2 million reported in the same period in 2017.
During the month of July, a total of 211,571 visitors passed through, of which 80% were tourists and 20% were day trippers, according to the Guatemalan Tourism Institute (Inguat).
After nine days of strikes by public officials in Costa Rica, tour operators, hotels and restaurants in different parts of the country are reporting that reservations are being cancelled and sales are plummeting.
The strike being promoted by the country's public unions started on Monday, September 6, and has already caused millions of dollars worth of losses due to multiple road blocks and acts of sabotage in the fuel distribution chain, among other coercive measures.
Between the first and second quarters of the year, the average daily per capita expenditure made by tourists who arrived in Nicaragua fell from $45.7 to $37.7.
From a report by the Central Bank of Nicaragua:
September 19, 2018.The average daily per capita expenditure made by incoming tourists was 37.7 dollars in the second quarter of the year and registered a decrease of 17.5 percent compared to the previous quarter, highlighting spending by tourists from other regions and North America, however, due to the affluence of tourists who visited the country, spending by tourists from Central America and North America has greater relevance.Year-on-year, this indicator reflected a decrease of 17.3 percent