MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay overall tourism champion in Latinamerica, says Latin Tourism Index

Punta del Este, the world renowned sea resort that attracts hundreds of thousands during the austral summer

Uruguay is overall champion of tourism in Latin America, according to the Latin Tourism Index from Latin Business Chronicle

The index of 15 countries in Latin America shows the total impact of tourism in a country by measuring receipts as a percent of GDP and arrivals per capita using 2009 data from the World Tourism Organization and the IMF. It also looks at growth in receipts and arrivals.

The champion of arrivals per capita is Uruguay. Last year Uruguay received 2 million tourists, 7% increase over the previous year. This is equivalent to 61.4% of the Uruguayan population.

Panama followed Uruguay as to the number of arrivals per capita (45.1%) and the Dominican Republic (44.2%).

Uruguay also had a good performance regarding arrivals and receipts from tourism and was third best regarding growth in international arrivals in Latin America. In 2009 Colombia was first while Nicaragua posted the strongest growth in tourism receipts, 25.4%, reaching 346 million US dollars.

Tourism receipts in Uruguay last year increased 24.7% to 1.3 billion US dollars, which makes it then second best of the region. Dominican Republic is the country with most receipts from tourism as percentage of GDP, 8.7%, followed by Costa Rica, 7.1% and Panama, 6%.

Although Mexico remains the top country in Latin America in terms of overall receipts and arrivals, the impact on the country’s economy is smaller than for many other countries. Mexico’s tourism receipts only account for 1.3% of its economy. That’s lower than the Latin American rate of 1.5% and much lower than countries like the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua.

Brazil remains bottom of the list regarding level or receipts and arrivals compared to its GDP and population.