Caribbean & Central America - July 2026

Visitor numbers to Central America recorded strong growth in the first quarter of this year, and the travel and tourism sector is forecast to keep growing.

On 2 June, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) reported that international arrivals to Central America increased 18% year-on-year for the period January-March 2026, compared to an increase of 0.2% in the Caribbean and -1% in South America. It also outperformed the global average of 2%, although this low growth can be explained in part by disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East. This was driven in part by a 43% increase in year-on-year Q1 visitor numbers in El Salvador, the third-highest increase for the period of any country in the world.

On 4 June, El Salvador’s Tourism Minister Morena Valdez was cited by government-owned newspaper Diario El Salvador as saying that there were 2.1m visitors to the country from January-May, meaning that it has already hit 50% of its 4.2m annual target in just five months. Valdez highlighted growth in the number of foreign visitors from countries such as Spain, England, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, and Canada, as well as new direct flights to Madrid and Barcelona with Spanish-Portuguese airline Iberojet. She added that negotiations were ongoing with other European airlines too. 

Guatemalans make up the largest share of foreign visitors, followed by the US and Honduras. The country’s tourism promotion strategy rests heavily on attracting visitors from these countries for shorter trips, rather than long-haul travellers. It is however also working to attract visitors from outside the region, positioning its beaches as a world class surf destination, focused on building out the Surf City project in El Tunco, La Libertad department, as well as trumpeting improvements in the security situation. The outlook will depend on whether the improvements in public security can hold without mounting evidence of human rights abuses damaging the country’s image abroad.

Looking ahead, the UK-based World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) forecast that Central and South America’s travel and tourism sector would outpace the global average for the year. Although it does not publish disaggregated data for Central America, the latest Economic Impact Research (EIR) report did highlight the fact that Panama is set to record the strongest growth in travel and tourism gross domestic product, up 8.4% for the year, with Guatemala second on 6.1% GDP growth. International visitor spending is also projected to rise 8.9% in Panama and 9.3% in Guatemala. 

The Central American Tourism Promotion Agency (CATA), which works to promote the region’s potential for multi-destination trips, met at the end of June to discuss upcoming actions. Among its top priorities was the organisation of the Central America Innovation Tourism + Talks and the Central America Travel Market (CATM) 2026, according to a statement published on 26 June. And in May, officials participating in the Wings of Change Americas 2026 (WOCA 2026) forum, which is organised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), positioned the region as a bridge for air connectivity in the region.

While this demonstrates continued effort to encourage visitors to travel to various countries in the region on a single trip, structural constraints such as the high prices of intraregional air fares continue to hold back integration. In addition, competing national strategies mean that there is limited political will to commit to this goal.

Resistance

Costa Rica has proven unwilling to facilitate intraregional air travel due to concerns that the high-spending international visitors that make up a significant part of its client base would find it easier to fly to neighbouring countries and therefore spend less time and money in Costa Rica.