The Americas pave the road for travel recovery in 2022

As stated by the head of ‘Market Intelligence’ at the "LATAM Travel Outlook for 2022" event held recently in Sao Paulo, the Americas outperformed all other global regions in terms of international arrivals in 2021. Mr. Juan Gomez added that it was LATAM and the Caribbean leading the way, luring travel-hungry tourists with their simple travel rules, safety protocols and regular flights from the US and Europe. Fast forward to 2022, they should continue to shine way above the international average.

Stealing the limelight are destinations in Central America in Q1, the most resilient destinations being El Salvador, followed by Nicaragua. Mexico was leading the way in 2021 but, as more regional neighbours have opened their borders and made enticing travel offers, they are facing more competition,commented Mr. Gomez

For Easter, Summer and beyond, travel demand in LATAM is getting close to 2019 levels. Colombia and Costa Rica are well-positioned to make a post-Omicron recovery.

For both destinations, issued tickets since the beginning of 2022 are above 2018/2019 levels. “Colombia is faring well in both travel intent and demand according to our data,” said Gomez. “We can see that transatlantic travel in terms of flight searches from the US and Spain is strong while international arrivals from April – June are particularly high from regional neighbours,” he added.

Source: WTM LATAM Teaser blog: LATAM Travel Outlook for 2022, ForwardKeys, 2022