At the opening ceremony of the 3rd Latin American and European Tourism Fair (EUROAL 2008), which was held yesterday at Torremolinos’ Congress and Exhibition Centre, the president of the Confederation of Latin American Tourism Organisations (COTAL) Luis Felipe Aquino analysed the performance of the Latin American market in the context of the current economic slowdown.
Latin American destinations fear that by the close of 2008 the upward trend of their quota of the global market will be reversed. The high price of oil, and the subsequent increase in operational costs for airlines, together with the announcement made by North American airlines (the Caribbean and Latin America’s chief market) regarding their intention to introduce a baggage surcharge, fuels this uncertainty.
Aquino was prudent when analysing Latin American market trends in the context of the current economic slowdown. In 2007, the market quota of Central American countries was up 11%, while those of South America and the Dominican Republic registered an average increase of 8% and 2%, respectively. Mexico is still the eighth most popular holiday destination in the world, while the popularity of the Caribbean was down 0.3%. Nevertheless, Aquino indicated that these positive results might suffer a reverse by the end of the year.
