First Tourism Group from China Completes Guatemala, Honduras Tour

Central America´s regional tour operator, EXPLORE, a division of Latin America Experts LLC, announced on Friday that the first tour group ever from the People´s Republic China has successfully completed a one-week visit to Guatemala and Honduras, Eduardo Rivera, Director of Explore in Tegucigalpa, said.

Rivera mentioned that this was the positive outcome after the four country members of the so-called CA4 northern Central America Region (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua), have recently reached an agreement to facilitate the issuing of visas to Chinese prospective tourists that meet certain financial and stability criteria.

The group, composed of 20 experienced travelers, had a chance to admire the natural beauty and learn about the local culture and historic heritage at popular tourist destinations such as Antigua, Lake Atitlan, the Mayan ruins of Tikal, and Copan.

Fifty-seven million Chinese nationals traveled abroad in 2011, and this figure is expected to increase by 22 percent every year in the next decade. Contemporary Chinese tourists are now looking for far-away exotic destinations, and they spend an average of $5,000 on a week-long tour package and $1,415 at the destination - much more than travelers from Europe and the United States.