Tourist arrivals rising in Ecuador

July 09, 2010

The Ministry of Tourism of Ecuador informed this week that the arrivals of foreign tourists to the country have risen in 9.38% at the end of the first semester of 2010.  The latest figure shows 508.170 arrivals, compared to 464.588 in the same period of 2009.

These are good news for the country which is placing a high bet on incoming tourism as a Strategic activity for Ecuador’s economy, providing important monetary resources and generating an ample spectrum of employment opportunities.

The newly disclosed figures show a continuity in the trend of which are the main markets supplying travelers to Ecuador: first, the United States with close to 25% of the total, followed by the neighboring countries of Colombia with a 19.8% and Peru with 15% of the arrivals during this first semester of 2010.  The markets which follow, with some slight variations in the respective percentages, are those of Spain, Germany, United Kingdom and France. The same statistics show an interesting increase in the arrivals of visitors from Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela, with a growth of 20% as compared with the previous year.

The study added that 69% of the arrivals came by air, through the international airports of Quito and Guayaquil, while a 29% arrived overland, mainly through the main frontier passes between Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

With this information, the Ministry of Tourism will focus its marketing strategies to strengthen those key markets (United States, Colombia and Peru) with special and sustained promotion campaigns and to design new strategies to conquer those emerging markets which are showing increased potential to become important suppliers for Ecuador.  The newly appointed Undersecretary of Tourism Marketing and Promotion, Patricio Tamariz, remarked on the importance which the statistic information provides in order to gear the country’s tourism promotion in a technical and strategically efficient manner.

According to the authorities, the increase in the number of foreign visitors arriving into Ecuador is reflecting the efforts which the country has been developing during the last five years in order to position the name of Ecuador as a unique travel destination, leader in sustainable tourism practices and extraordinarily rich in natural and cultural diversity, all packed in a small surface (the second smallest country in South America), which contains within its territory Four Natural and totally different Worlds: the Pacific Coast; the Andean Region; the Amazon Rainforest and the unique Galapagos Islands. Ecuador has a Strategic Marketing Plan for the period 2010-2014, which is being constantly followed, monitored and updated, in order to accomplish the objective of converting the country on a World class Tourism Destination, with quality services and responsible practices throughout.