CENTRAL AMERICA | Neighbours help boost tourism. All Central American countries are reporting increases in tourist arrivals this year — and in all cases a substantial part of the increase is accounted for by visitors from neighbouring countries. Last year Central America as a whole received 3.4m tourists, earning just over US$1bn from the trade.
El Salvador reports a 27.5% increase in arrivals in the first half of the year, to 464,208, who spend almost US$202m; almost 40% of the visitors came from Guatemala. Tourism ministries in Honduras and Guatemala report that almost 50% of their visitors in January-August came from El Salvador.
In Nicaragua, tourism earned US$113m in January-July, making it the third-biggest foreign-exchange earner; the proportion of visitors from nearby was `very important'. Costa Rica, with the most developed tourism industry in the subregion, expects 6% growth this year, with `a good part' of that coming from Central America. It is worth pointing out that the governments of the region have come together to conduct joint tourism promotion campaigns, seeking to brand `Central America' as a single destination — a unique experiment.
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