ABSTRACT
In 2017, Mexico, Central and South American, and the Caribbean countries attracted 112.9 million international tourists, 53.5% of all international tourists to the Americas, who generated US$94.9 billion in international tourism receipts. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of international tourism in Latin America, and identify opportunities and challenges for tourism development. In 2018, it contributed to 8.7% of the region's GDP, 7.8% of all employment and 7.3% of total exports. The authors provide short case studies of emerging city destinations that are providing different tourism experiences in the region. Tijuana faced two major tourism challenges: its reputation was tarnished and it lacked innovative tourism products to attract higher quality, first-time visitors and motivate longer stays in the destination. Currently, Latin America only captures 5% of the academic tourism market, with Brazil, Mexico and Colombia being the countries that host the most international students.
