The World Economic Forum ranks El Salvador in 97th place out of 119 countries and highlights that it is the one that rose the most positions in the Americas between 2019 and 2024.
El Salvador is the country that rose the most in the Americas in the Travel and Tourism Development Index developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF); moving from 101st to 97 between 2019 and 2024.
The biennial report published in collaboration with the University of Surrey, which analyses 119 nations, highlights that of the 30 countries with the best scores, 26 are high-income economies. Of these 30, 19 are in Europe, seven in Asia-Pacific, three in the Americas and one from the Middle East.
In the ranking by subregion, El Salvador (97) with a score of 3.43 is in third place, below Costa Rica, which occupies the 51st global position (with a note of 4.08) and Panama, which is at 63; while it is above Guatemala, which occupies box 100, Nicaragua, which is in 108th place and Honduras that ranks 111th with a note of 3.19, and is the last position of the continent.
The index analyses the travel and tourism sector of 119 countries taking into account factors and policies as an optimal environment; tourism and travel policy (price conditions, openness and priority); infrastructure and services; tourism resources (cultural, natural and non-eat-ecio) and sustainability.
On these issues El Salvador is better evaluated on sustainability issues, but its highest safety note is. The other side is occupied by infrastructure issues and the worst note is in cultural resources.
Recovery
According to the WEF report, international tourist arrivals and the contribution of the tourism sector to global GDP are expected to return to pre- pandemic levels this year.
This year marks a turning point for the travel and tourism sector, which, as we know, has the capacity to enable growth and put itself at the service of communities through economic and social transformation, says Francisco Betti, head of the Global Industries team at the World Economic Forum.
The report explains that although there has been a sharp increase in demand for travel, thanks to the growth of flight supply and greater openness internationally, not all regions have recorded the same degree of recovery. While 71 of the 119 classified economies have improved their scores since 2019, the average score of the index is only 0.7% above pre- pandemic levels, he emphasizes.
In addition, the sector will have to deal with other problems such as geopolitical problems, labour shortages and imbalance, aggravated by global inflation, has led to an increase in prices and problems in services.
This article has been translated after first appearing in La Prensa Grafica