TOURISM WINNERS: Uruguay (top) and the Dominican Republic (above) are Latin America's winners when it comes to tourism receipts. (Photos: Latin Business Chronicle and Dominican Tourism Ministry)
Latin America registers another record year in arrivals and receipts, with Panama and Uruguay leading growth.
BY JOACHIM BAMRUD
Panama continues to be the fastest-growing tourism market in Latin America, but Uruguay is the winner when it comes to growth in receipts. Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic is the country with the region's highest receipts as a percentage of GDP, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis of new data from the World Tourism Organization.
All in all, Latin America received a record total of 68.6 million international arrivals last year, an increase of 2.9 percent from 2006. That was lower than the world average of 6.6 percent and the growth seen in all other regions.
Latin America's tourism receipts, however, grew by 9.7 percent to a record $58.9 billion. That means Latin America grew faster than all world regions except Asia. The growth was also higher than the world average of 5.6 percent.
WINNERS
Although Uruguay was among the losers when it comes to arrival growth - a mere 0.2 percent to 1.8 million last year - it managed to beat all other...
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From: Margarita Palatnik, Punta del Este Glad to know Uruguay leads in something. Although intuitively it may be against the socialist government´s philosophy, they are wakening up to the fact that Punta del Este´s "beautiful people" appeal means higher receipts for their coffers. Now, rather than focusing on attracting Chilean tourists (Chilean! who came up with that one I wonder) Uruguayan authorities and businesspeople regularly attend European tourism and real estate fairs and officially court retirees from up north.
HP: Strong Latin Growth