The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused the international tourism in Argentina to drop to more than ** percent in 2021 versus 2019 - which was even higher than the impact recorded in 2020. By contrast, domestic tourism in the South American country showed some signs of recovery in 2021, which also may have contributed to the similar development displayed by the contribution of the hospitality industry to Argentina's gross domestic product (GDP).

An August 2020 survey focused on the Argentinian's perceived risk of COVID-19 contagion in the tourism sector. According to the study, the interviewed Argentinians believed cruises to be the riskiest tourist product to get infected with COVID-19. This type of holiday was rated with an average score of four out of five points on the risk scale. In contrast, ecotourism or adventure tourism activities were considered to be the least dangerous types of tourism products to cause novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infections.

The fear of COVID-19 contagion was the main factor influencing travel planning among Argentine tourists as of April 2021, according to a survey. Falling purchasing power was considered as the second main issue affecting trip planning by respondents in the South American country in that same period.

Endowed with an immense territory with great tourist attractions, Argentina is the recipient of massive numbers of travelers. However, the COVID-19 pandemic hurt this sector immensely. In 2021, the country received less than 300 thousand international tourists, of which approximately 45 thousand were Brazilian residents. That same year, a similar amount of U.S. and Canadian residents visited the South American country as well.

Between 2016 and 2019, the expenditure of outbound tourism in Argentina represented over *** percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). However, this figure went down to only less than *** percent as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Inbound tourism expenditure, for its part, accounted for *** and *** percent of the Argentine GDP in 2020 and 2021.

In 2022, international tourists who traveled for personal reasons to Argentina spent nearly three billion U.S. dollars during their trip – around ** percent of the figure recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic . Meanwhile, expenditures of foreign business visitors in the South American country amounted only to *** million U.S. dollars, over half of what it was spent in 2019.

In 2022, the volume of domestic tourism in Argentina registered a year-over-year increase of over 68 percent, showing the recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The total amounted to roughly 64 million in that year, the highest number recorded since at least 2012.

In 2022, over 2.5 thousand hotel establishments were operating in Argentina, an increase of over 28 percent from the previous year. This growth showed a recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, reaching close to pre-pandemic levels.

In 2022, the number of international tourist arrivals for business or professional purposes in Argentina increased almost ** times versus the previous year, showing a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, international business travelers in Argentina spent around *** million U.S. dollars during their travels during that year.

Mexico was the most visited destination by international tourists in Latin America in 2023, surpassing 42 million tourist arrivals in that year. In the second place, but far behind, was the Dominican Republic.

A global tourism powerhouse By developing airport infrastructure and calibrating new direct flights, Mexico has set international tourism high on its priorities list. At the forefront of Mexico's spike in international tourism is the FONATUR, or Mexico's National Fund for Tourism Development. The tourism body worked in the expansion of Cancun's airport and other four key tourist airports in the country. Plus, Mexico City's airport added new international direct flights in the 2010s, resulting in being rated as the best internationally connected airport in Latin America in 2019. With this and other developments in this sector, the North American country managed to rank among the top 20 destinations in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Ranking that year.

South America's tourism leader Through its geographically diverse landscape and globally recognized wine industry, Argentina has grown its international tourism sector. The influx of foreign visitors to Argentina can in some way be attributed to the country's air-travel infrastructure. The national air carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas, was one of the top airline operating in Latin America in 2019. That same year, passenger traffic to Argentinian airports grew by four percent. Though in April 2020, in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of international air travel tourists to Argentina came to a complete halt, ensuing a similar fate of the global tourism industry.

Indonesia Visitors Arrivals by Residence: Argentina data was reported at 948.000 Person in Dec 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 835.000 Person for Nov 2024. Indonesia Visitors Arrivals by Residence: Argentina data is updated monthly, averaging 782.000 Person from Jan 2017 (Median) to Dec 2024, with 96 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4,000.000 Person in May 2017 and a record low of 1.000 Person in Jun 2020. Indonesia Visitors Arrivals by Residence: Argentina data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Statistics Indonesia. The data is categorized under Indonesia Premium Database’s Tourism Sector – Table ID.QA003: Visitors Arrivals: by Country of Residence. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

The number of international visitor arrivals in Panama was close to two million in 2022, after having plummeted in the previous two years due to the COVID-19 impact on tourism worldwide. Before the pandemic, the country had more than 2.5 million arrivals by foreign visitors.

On the right path

Panama received a Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) score of 4.2 out of seven points in 2019. The Central American country ranked fourth in Latin America and the Caribbean, shortly trailing Mexico, Brazil, and Costa Rica. The index measures how attractive a country is to developing business in that sector. In that year, the travel and tourism policy and enabling conditions were the country’s highest-rated sub-index, with a score of 4.9. However, the overall Panamanian 2019 TTCI score was the lowest recorded since 2013.

Cash cow

As a small but highly international travel hub, Panama’s tourism sector is mostly driven by foreign visitors. In 2019, the four-million nation ranked for the third largest expenditure generated by international visitors in the region, outperforming other major destinations like Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia. Inbound tourism spending represented around 11 percent of the country's GDP throughout the 2010s —an economic activity that was nonetheless severely affected by COVID-19. As an early-2021 forecast projects, the entire Panamanian tourism sector would need around five years to recover from the effects of that global health crisis.

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown measures implemented globally, Argentina experienced a halt in international inbound tourism between April and June. During those months, the South American country did not received any foreign tourists arriving by air, in contrast to the more than 200 thousand arrivals per month in the previous year. In the following months, the international tourism in the South American country showed a modest recovery.

According to a survey carried out in Argentina, over half of respondents reported increased desires to travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic as of April 2021. On the other hand, 23 percent of Argentinians surveyed said that their wishes to make a trip had decreased during the same period.

As a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of international air travelers arriving at the airports Ezeiza and Aeroparque, located in the Argentine capital, dropped by 93 percent in 2021 versus 2019. However, the volume of international tourism in this important airport in Argentina jumped back in 2022 to more than 1.5 million.

During the cruise ship season of 2022/23, the city of Buenos Aires in Argentina registered a cruise passenger traffic of roughly *** thousand people, showing the recovery from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The cruise ship season of 2012/13 registered the largest number of cruise passengers in the Argentinian province since 2010, with ***** thousand.

International tourism expenditures in Argentina declined by nearly 75.2 percent in 2021 to only 445 million U.S. dollars. This was the second consecutive decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic after a drop of nearly 70 percent in 2020.

The South American continent was the main region of origin for international tourists in Argentina from 2016 to 2020, followed at a wide margin by Europe. However, the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted the inbound tourism in the country. In 2020, the number of visitors from South American neighboring countries dropped by more than 70 percent to 1.43 million. International tourism in Argentina from other world regions registered also strong declines that same year. Brazil is the leading origin of non-resident tourists in Argentina.

Among potential tourists surveyed in Argentina, those born between the mid-to-late ***** and early ***** — also known as Centennials or Gen Z— showed the highest increase in their desire for traveling after a year into the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In total, nearly ***** out of ten Centennials surveyed in the South American country reported that they were more willing to travel as of **********. In contrast, survey participants from Generation X — born between the early-to-mid ***** and early ***** — registered the highest decline in the desire to travel.

In March 2020, it was estimated that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic could endanger 1.7 million jobs in the travel and tourism sector in Mexico alone. The most populated Latin American country, Brazil, could also lose up to 1.2 million jobs in the tourism and travel industry. Furthermore, the pandemic could also cause the Argentine tourism sector to lose around 200 thousand jobs.