In the 2019 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala fell back in the ranking, while the Dominican Republic was the only country that improved.
According to the report prepared by the World Economic Forum, during 2019 Costa Rica ranked 41 out of 140 countries. It was followed by Panama at box 47, the Dominican Republic at 73, Nicaragua at 91, Honduras at 94, Guatemala at 99 and El Salvador at 108.
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The report of the World Economic Forum states that “… The Dominican Republic is the country that has made the most progress in the region (76 to 73), thanks to a global improvement in 11 aspects. Panama had the largest decline in the region (35 to 47), with falls in nine pillars, including the region with the largest drop in land infrastructure (40 to 53) because of reduced efficiency of land transport (40 to 46) and the inclusion of rail data in which it ranks low (98).
Although the North and Central American subregion is more competitive than the South American subregion, the improvement in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TCI) score from 2017 to 2019 was minimal.
The biggest advantage of Central and North America, over South America, is its more developed infrastructure, especially air and ground.” See full report.
For Shirley Calvo, Executive Director of the National Chamber of Tourism of Costa Rica (Canatur), in order for the country to increase its competitiveness, “… improvements in transportation infrastructure are urgently needed. Public investment in infrastructure is vital, and I’m talking about airports, cruise ports and secondary airports.”
Calvo told Elobservador.cr that “… For a country that aims to receive 4 million tourists by 2020, air terminals must expand their capacity and improve the capacity of internal services such as Immigration and Customs.”
See article by Elobservador.cr “Costa Rica’s Tourism Competitiveness Declines in World Ranking“.
Panama has been restricting services to tourists for years, and making live hard for small private companies that want to offer tourist services, and that is the back bone of the tourist industry. Inn all countries with successful it is run by hundreds of competing small companies with a few big ones. Panama has tried to push out the small operators.