After the political crisis the country went through in 2018 and the health crisis it faced in 2020, businessmen maintain hopes that tourism activities will recover in 2021 and in the following years return to the path of growth.
The Nicaraguan tourism sector has been rained on over the past three years. In April 2018, companies engaged in these activities began to experience a crisis, as a political and social crisis occurred in the country, which ended up affecting the productive activity.
Because the number of foreign visitors arriving to Nicaragua has decreased considerably, during 2019 businesses in the sector were kept afloat by the income generated by national tourists.
According to the report "Situation of Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Businesses in 2019", prepared by the Nicaraguan Foundation for Economic and Social Development (Funides), 62% of the businesses surveyed stated that at the time of the survey they had fewer workers than in March 2018, weeks before the crisis broke out.
Authorities report that during 2018 arrived in the country 1.4 million visitors, a figure that is 28% lower than the 1.9 million recorded in 2017, a decline explained by the social and political crisis that the country is going through since April last year.
With several months in arrears, the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism published the report on the country's tourism situation, which reflects that after the sector came growing steadily, during 2018 collapsed because of the crisis.
Because of the crisis affecting the country since April last year, it is estimated that during 2018 the losses of the Nicaraguan tourism sector totaled $440 million, and more than 62 thousand jobs disappeared.
The arrival of tourists to the country is another figure reporting a considerable decline last year, since between 2017 and 2018 the number of visitors who came to Nicaragua fell 55%, going from 1.7 million to 800 thousand.
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.
The sector's guild reported that 24 charter flights scheduled to arrive in the country from Canada were cancelled between December and February 2019.
The representatives of the National Chamber of Tourism of Nicaragua (Canatur) confirmed that with the cancellation of flights, will stop arriving between 2,000 and 3,000 tourists.
In this regard, the president of Canatur, Lucy Valenti, explained to Laprensa.com.ni that "...
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.
Nicaraguan business leaders in the tourism sector have proposed identifying areas in the country where political and social tensions are least fraught, with the aim of attracting tourists and minimizing the impact of the crisis.
One of the objectives pursued by the strategy proposed by entrepreneurs in the tourism sector in Nicaragua is to attract mainly surfers or backpackers who come to Costa Rica.To do so, "... they will hold business conferences in the neighboring country and request support from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT)."
In May, 34,400 foreign tourists arrived in the country by air, almost 40% less than in the same month last year.
The political and social crisis that the country is experiencing continues to cause havoc in the Nicaraguan economy, with tourism being one of the most affected sectors.According to statistics from the National Chamber of Tourism of Nicaragua (Canatur), in April, the month in which the crisis began, there was a year-on-year decrease of 16% in the number of visitors that entered by air, falling from 60,116 to 50,450.
Tour operators report the cancellation of almost 100% of the reserves for this year, and foresee that this situation will extend until 2019.
The crisis in which the country has been submerged since April 14 has brought a lot of negative consequences to the tourism sector.One of them is the one presented by representatives of the Nicaraguan Association of Receptive Tourism (Antur), since tour operators are registering cancellation levels of between 90% and 100%.
Due to the crisis affecting the country, the tourist sector union estimates that hotels, hostels and restaurants are facing losses of around $100 million.
As a result of the social crisis that the country has been suffering from for two weeks, representatives from the National Chamber of Tourism of Nicaragua (Canatur), reported that for the next few days hotel reservations have been canceled almost in their entirety, while restaurants are working at 15% capacity.