Central America Keeps Chugging Along in the European Market 

CATA’s steady publicity efforts continue to promote the positioning of the multi-destination and the image of Central America in the European markets.

The press releases and newsletters managed by the agency, as well as the alliances with the media, have generated to date a total of 3,360 publications, which is equivalent to a return on investment of more than 75 million euros for Central America, resulting in an audience reach of more than 17 billion people. 

These figures, Central America’s media exposure, and the continuous work of each of the countries of the SICA region resulted in the arrival of 23.2 million visitors to the region during the year 2017, thus overcoming the trends of the global market with a 7.5 percent increase1.   

Of those 23.2 million visitors, the intraregional market share table registered that the main markets for the region during 2017 were, in first place, the United States, Canada, and Mexico with 31 percent of tourists visiting the region, followed by Central America and the Dominican Republic with 29.8 percent, and the European market in third place with 15.1 percent.

Of the six target markets of the SICA region in Europe (Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and the Netherlands), the arrival of tourists represented 10.7 percent of the total share of arrivals, accounting for 1,743,791 tourists from these prioritized markets. 

In addition, the impact generated by tourism on the economic activity in the region was extremely positive, registering a total of $19,915.2 million dollars in revenues, and approximately 919,000 direct and indirect jobs, which represent an important contribution to the economy of the countries of the region. These figures are expected to increase at the end of 2018.  

For the next five years, CATA is committed to increasing the positioning of Central America as a single multi-destination in the minds of European tourists, as well as other tourists worldwide, by improving the communication and information channels used through its Digital Marketing and Public Relations Agency in Europe.