The Americas recover 97% of pre-pandemic arrivals

In 2024, at 213 million arrivals, the Americas were only 3% below their pre-pandemic performance of 2019. The best performing sub-regions on the continent were Central America (up 16.1%) and the Caribbean (up 8.5%) according to provisional data from UN tourism. Compared to 2023, the continent enjoyed 7% growth in total arrivals.

While tourist arrivals to North America are recovering the slowest (7.1% behind 2019), the sub-region still represents the bulk of the tourism activity of the continent. Last year, it generated some 136 million arrivals. South America is the second largest inbound sub-region with close to 35 million international arrivals.

Meanwhile, Central America and the Caribbean have already exceeded pre-pandemic numbers. Among the top 20 best performing countries in international arrivals last year, three are located in Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama), three are in the Caribbean (Aruba, Curaçao and the Dominican Republic) and one is located in South America (Colombia).

Photo: Leandro Loureiro – Unsplash