Tourism to Central America Grows Despite Downturn

Latest figures released by the World Tourism Organization show that the number of visitors to Central America increased by 8 percent in 2008, the highest increase in the whole of the Americas.

The region –which includes the countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama- received 8.4 million foreign visitors in 2008, attracted by its diverse offering of adventure tourism, wildlife, beaches, Mayan ruins and colonial cities, plus better international flight connections.

The Spanish carrier Iberia has started to offer a fifth weekly flight from Madrid to Guatemala and Panama. Iberia has the largest offer of flights from Europe to Central America, with 350,000 seats available (4.2 percent more than in 2008).

The Dutch airline KLM has also increased the number of flights from Amsterdam to Panama City from three to five a week. Air Caraibes has launched new weekly flights from Paris to Panama and Costa Rica, via Pointe a Pitre or Fort de France in the French Antilles.

From the U.S., Delta Airlines has started a daily flight from Atlanta (Georgia) to Tegucigalpa (Honduras) and the low cost airline JetBlue will start a daily flight from Orlando (Florida) to San Jose (Costa Rica) from 26 March.