Chile Surges Ahead As Latin America's Fastest-Growing Tourism Market

(MENAFN- The Rio Times) (Analysis) Official data from national tourism ministries and central banks show that Latin America's tourism industry split into fast risers and laggards in 2024.

Chile recorded the region's highest growth in arrivals and receipts, while Mexico and the Dominican Republic consolidated their scale and market share.

Chile welcomed 5.24 million visitors, an increase of 40.4 percent from 2023, and generated 3.2 billion dollars in receipts. The surge came mainly from Argentina and Brazil, supported by strong cross-border travel demand.

Peru followed with a 29 percent rise to about 3.3 million arrivals, with receipts increasing by more than 30 percent to 3.5 billion dollars.

Mexico remained the regional leader in volume with about 45 million arrivals, up 7.4 percent, and receipts of 33 billion dollars. These numbers represented 36 percent of Latin America 's arrivals and 26 percent of its receipts.



Yet the contribution to Mexico's overall economy stood at only 1.78 percent of GDP, showing scale without proportional weight. The Dominican Republic reached 11.2 million visitors, up nine percent, almost matching the size of its own population.

Tourism there generated 10.9 billion dollars, equal to 8.8 percent of GDP, one of the highest ratios in the region. Strong flows from Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico offset weaker numbers from the United States.

Colombia set a new record with 6.7 million visitors and receipts of more than 10 billion dollars, reflecting gains in both air travel and services. Brazil also posted historic highs with 6.65 million visitors and 7.3 billion dollars in receipts, its best result in 15 years.

Secondary markets grew quickly as well. Paraguay expanded arrivals by 22 percent to 2.23 million and receipts to 766 million dollars.

Honduras welcomed 2.8 million visitors, up 17.8 percent, while Guatemala grew 15 percent to 3 million visitors and receipts of 1.3 billion dollars.

Panama reported 2.78 million visitors, up 10.6 percent, and receipts of at least 4.05 billion dollars by August. Costa Rica handled 2.66 million visitors by air, up 7.7 percent.

Several countries fell behind. Argentina saw double-digit declines in inbound tourism while outbound travel surged, creating a deficit in its tourism balance. Uruguay lost 13 percent of its arrivals compared to 2023.

Cuba fell by 9.6 percent to 2.2 million arrivals. Nicaragua dropped 9.7 percent with receipts of 510.8 million dollars. Ecuador also reported declines during 2024 due to security concerns.

The figures show two different stories. Large markets such as Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia delivered scale but limited economic weight compared with GDP.

Smaller and mid-sized markets like the Dominican Republic, Paraguay, and Honduras achieved high growth or strong GDP ratios, making tourism an outsized economic driver.

The region's tourism industry now depends both on giants that move volume and on smaller states that maximize value.

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