Tourism, diplomacy, and improvement:
Three nations, Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, seize 2.7% of world tourism, Mexico 1.6%, and the opposite round 0.5%. If the direct and oblique results are added, all significantly impression their nationwide economies.
The contribution of this sector to the Dominican Republic’s GDP reaches 20%, in comparison with 8% in Mexico and 6.3% in Colombia. As for the employment generated, it’s estimated that 4.4 million are in Mexico, 1.4 million in Colombia, and 0.8 million within the Dominican Republic work within the journey and tourism business.
This panorama, consolidated by the picture of the three nations as cultural, pure, and concrete locations, faces structural challenges widespread to many Latin American nations:
Safety, connectivity, sustainability, and worldwide positioning.
The latest change of the administration in america can also be altering the worldwide tourism map. Within the first 4 months of 2025, Canadian vacationer arrivals to the U.S. fell by 8.3%, whereas these from Europe fell by 5.1%.
A number of damaging incidents with robust media protection have negatively affected the notion of Vacation spot USA, which might favor a big diversion of vacationer flows to Mexico and the Caribbean.
Making the most of this chance and positioning the area as a strategic different inside Latin America can not rely solely on nationwide methods: It requires a regional imaginative and prescient, lively presence, and political weight within the worldwide organizations – private and non-private – that regulate the sector.
UN-Tourism Govt Council
Amongst these worldwide organizations is UN Tourism, previously UNWTO. The Govt Council contains Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic as three of the 5 Latin American members, along with Argentina and Brazil.
Latest experiences present the tourism sector’s vulnerability to crises amplified by worldwide media protection. In 2019, a case of some vacationers dying in Dominican resorts led to a pointy drop in arrivals, with double-digit losses.
Mexico
In Mexico, widespread violence as a result of drug cartels, with one of many highest murder charges on the continent, 25.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, impacts even historically secure locations like Puerto Vallarta and Cancun. In Colombia, episodes of violence or social protests have contributed to a distorted world notion, which ignores the excessive safety requirements of many areas of the nation.
This reveals tourism’s intrinsic fragility and the necessity for an efficient world communication technique supported by multilateral alliances and regional cooperation.
On this context, the upcoming election of the brand new Secretary-Basic of UN Tourism on the finish of Might is especially related. The Govt Board, to which the three nations (Colombia, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic) belong, will choose the candidate whose nomination it can suggest for ratification by the Basic Meeting of UN-Tourism to steer world tourism.
Till just a few days in the past, one of many candidates was the incumbent, Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili, in search of a controversial third time period. Nonetheless, Georgia withdrew its candidacy and introduced its help for the UAE candidate. Though the explanations weren’t publicly defined, there’s hypothesis that they’re associated to inner tensions after the October elections and to the group’s place on the Russian Federation, whose membership was suspended by a big majority in UN-Tourism. Nonetheless, the measure was rescinded by Russia’s voluntary withdrawal earlier than the vote.
This sort of geopolitical motion underscores the necessity for Latin America to behave coherently. In 2017, one thing comparable occurred at UNESCO, when a Latin American nation withdrew its candidacy to help a 3rd, which was finally not elected both.
Whatever the judgment on these circumstances, it can’t be ignored that the withdrawals of candidacies, particularly when accompanied by non-transparent help, don’t strengthen the picture of impartiality and legitimacy that the United Nations system wants. That is very true in a posh historic context after choices by america authorities, corresponding to its withdrawal from the World Well being Group or the discount of help to different businesses.
At the moment, Latin America has an actual alternative to behave with unity and management. The area has a strong candidate:
Gloria Guevara
Gloria Guevara, the previous Minister of Tourism of Mexico, has intensive expertise in multilateral organizations and the personal sector. Her profile combines expertise, imaginative and prescient, and capability for world dialogue.
This regional help is necessary for at the least three causes:
- Academic and scientific tourism
The broader Caribbean area and Latin America have to advance within the internationalization of their increased training. To this finish, an built-in coverage that features regional educational mobility applications, at the least Andean-Central American applications much like the European Erasmus program, can be essential. This could strengthen coaching and college cooperation and promote educational tourism, rising the circulation of data. - Giant scientific infrastructures and innovation tourism tasks, corresponding to regional analysis, well being, or know-how hubs, generate vacationer flows. Science, drugs, biodiversity, and innovation are new frontiers of sustainable tourism improvement. The three nations have already got some poles of this nature. Turning them into scientific tourism locations – as is already the case in some Asian nations – is a chance that has not but been explored.
Two examples:
Colombia: Barranquilla was the American capital of tradition;
Dominican Republic: The Silicon Seashore mission proposed by President Abinader has a powerful tourism dimension. - Regional tourism integration
Neighbouring nations shouldn’t solely be seen as opponents, but in addition as strategic allies. The English-speaking Caribbean already gives built-in tour packages. Why not lengthen this logic to Mexico, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic? As a bridge between South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, Colombia might be key to articulating vacationer packages that reap the benefits of cultural, geographical, and logistical connections, together with Argentina and Brazil.
As well as, tourism cooperation can grow to be a constructive device inside a broader worldwide technique in contexts of migratory or social crises.
Lastly, I point out an initiative I’m personally concerned in:
The proposal for a world synchrotron programme for the World South was promoted by an interregional group and chosen by UNESCO as a flagship mission of the Science Decade. This program, which helps science-based tourism and cooperation, requires worldwide partnerships and shared management.
In that sense, it’s important that Mohamed Faouzou Déme from Senegal, an African candidate, has withdrawn his candidacy to help Guevara. Though this political gesture is particular person, it demonstrates the worldwide scope that his candidacy can have.
Latin America has an actual alternative to strengthen its presence in a strategic group. Supporting Gloria Guevara’s candidacy is an institutional dedication and a choice that aligns nationwide pursuits with a shared imaginative and prescient of tourism as an engine of sustainable improvement, regional cooperation, and world integration.
