WTTC forecasts strong tourism growth in El Salvador 

28-05-23

Tourism in El Salvador in 2023 will generate income of more than three billion 600 million dollars, according to projections by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC).

This estimate surpassed the forecasts of the local Ministry of Tourism, which projected for this year the arrival of two million 700 thousand international visitors and income for the economy of two thousand 700 million dollars.

After the fall in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the shutdown of the economy and international mobility restrictions, which led the tourism industry to regress in a decade, the sector began to gain ground and is shaping up to finally reach full recovery in 2023, experts say.

The WTTC assured that the activity will surpass pre-pandemic levels this 2023, with a revenue projection that will be 8.3 percent higher than that recorded in 2019, its best year before the crisis.

Last year, as part of the recovery, the Ministry of Tourism (Mitur) recorded the arrival of 2.5 million international tourists who brought in more than two billion 646 million dollars to the economy.

One aspect of the sector's recovery in El Salvador that is highlighted by the minister of tourism, Morena Valdez, is its contribution to the generation of jobs in the country.

For the next decade, the WTTC forecasts that it will add 154,000 new jobs and reach a ceiling of 527,000, which would mean a quota of one for every five jobs.

This year, the WTTC predicted that the industry will generate 372,000 jobs, a figure that would be 10.8 per cent higher than the 2019 results and would represent 14 per cent of the total number of active jobs in El Salvador.