The Corsatur recorded more than 75,000 Salvadorans living abroad who made tourism and overnight in El Salvador, during the first quarter of 2024.
The government notes that one million people made tourism in El Salvador in the first three months of 2024, of this portion 75.2 percent pernocated and the rest were hikers. /DEM
The diaspora accounted for 10 per cent of international tourists who entered El Salvador during the first quarter of 2024, according to the latest report of the Salvadoran Tourism Corporation (Corsatur).
Corsatur points out that in the first three months of 2024 more than a million people visited El Salvador to make tourism, however, of this portion 768,177 were classified as tourists, because they stayed overnight, and 252,413 entered the category of hikers, because they were in the country only one day.
Of the more than 760,000 tourists who stayed in El Salvador, some 75,220 were Salvadorans based abroad, 10 per cent of the total. The rest, about 692,957 were foreigners of different nationalities.
Despite the previous figure, the government reveals that it was in 2018 when, at the same time, the largest number of Salvadorans entered abroad to make tourism, in that year 78,360 people from the diaspora stayed for more than a day in El Salvador.
In addition, arrivals represent a growth of 21 per cent over the same period of 2023. According to Corsatur, 86 percent of the distant brothers who visited El Salvador come from the United States.
With regard to non-resident foreigners, they have increased by 54 per cent, the tourism report said.
Visitors
The government reports a 38 percent increase in visitors overall, who injected $914 million in foreign exchange into the local economy, 13 percent more than the $807 million in 2023.
State estimates indicate that average daily spending on a stay, during the first quarter of 2024, was around $114, a figure that marks a decrease of $44 from the $155 spent a year ago.
The information shows that the type of stay has not changed and is kept on average for 10 days per person. That is, tourism currencies have increased by the number of international tourists, not because they are spending more.
The corporation points out that the majority of overnight tourists come from the United States, Guatemala and Honduras, only 78 percent of international tourism accumulates from these three nations.
El Salvador also registers tourists from Nicaragua, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Colombia, among other nations.
The report notes that 57 out of every 100 international tourists come to El Salvador for leisure, 20 per cent do so for visiting family or friends, and 8 per cent for health or business, to this is added 4 per cent of sports tourism and 1 per cent for religious reasons.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo