AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life News Modest Growth in Euro Tourism to Central America

CENTRAL AMERICA SEES ONLY MODEST GROWTH IN EUROPEAN TRAVELERS IN 2013; SURPRISINGLY BRITS DON'T FLOCK TO ENGLISH-SPEAKING BELIZE About 648,000 Europeans visited Central America from January through September 2013, according to data from the Central America Tourism Agency as reported by a UK magazine, Incentive Travel & Corporate Meetings.That was a modest increase of 1% from the same period a year earlier. Travelers from Spain were the #1 source of European visitors, followed by Germany, the U.K., France and Italy. Costa Rica was the first choice of Euro travelers in Central America, with Panama seeing the greatest growth (14%) in European visitors. Europeans made up about 7% of all 9.4 million international visitors to Central America during the nine-month period in 2013. Even though Belize is the only country in Central America with English as the official language, it was next to last in the number of visitors from the U.K. British travelers chose Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama as their top destinations. Costa Rica had about 28,000 U.K. visitors. In Central America, only El Salvador got fewer British visitors than Belize, about 1,700 versus around 7,000 Brits coming to Belize. (February 5, 2014)

SOURCE

In flights to Central America �

* COPA, based in Panama, is the #1 airline in non-stop seat capacity
from North America (U.S., Canada and Mexico) to Central America,
followed closely by American and United -- COPA only flies from 9
North American airports, most recently adding Tampa and Boston with
nonstop service

* The #1 destination in Central America from the U.S. is Costa Rica,
with 143,000 monthly airline seat capacity, followed by Panama at #2
with 133,000 seats per month, El Salvador at # 3 with 78,000 seats and
Guatemala at #4 with 58,000 seats

* Belize is #7 in monthly airline seat capacity in Central America
from the U.S., at 29,000 seats

* Miami has the most seat capacity from North America to Central
America, with 130,000 monthly seats

* Panama City is the Central American airport with the most seat
capacity from North America, with 189,000 monthly seats

Source: Airline Network News & Analysis