GuateTourism Recession Resistant? Not So Much

Well, I guess this is the third mistake I’ll have to admit to this year, bring my accuracy rating (as verified by the down to 99.1%.  elPeriodico is reporting that tourism related income is down by nearly 30% over the same period last year.  That number mirrors the drop in revenue of many businesses I’ve talked to around town.  The reason?

Carolina López, representante de Promotora Turística Panamericana (PTP), señaló que las ventas de paquetes bajaron hasta un 70 por ciento, las personas ya no están viajando a Guatemala debido a la crisis, el temor a contagiarse de la gripe A H1N1, y el escándalo del asesinato del abogado Rodrigo Rosenberg que le dio la vuelta al mundo y asustó al viajero de negocios (ejecutivos e inversionistas).

If your Spanish is worse than mine and you don’t know how to use Google Translate, this article claims tourists are not coming because they’re  worried about the economic crisis, H1N1/FNASF, and the scandal involving the assassination of the attorney who said those unpleasant things about President Colom.

You may recall that in a previous post I mentioned that the Guate economy appeared to be holding strong.  If this is still true and the tourist dollars are off, it confirms what I’ve suspected; people are still coming but they’re spending less.  I guess if you’re a backpacker, it doesn’t really matter whether the DOW is at 9,000 or 3,000, but all you baby boomers appear to be a little nervous, and with good reason; we haven’t seen the bottom yet.