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Impacts of the Covid 19 Pandemic on Tourism in El Salvador

Jordana Marbely López Guerra
Languages School, Don Bosco University
Writing Style
Karla Fuentes
Thursday June 8, 2023
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Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Tourism in El Salvador

Do you think the Covid-19 pandemic affected the tourism area too much? Or do you think
it was about time the tourist places took a break from all the garbage received, meaning that
Covid-19 was the best option for tourism to stop evolving at that time? Tourism, is one of
the main progresses in El Salvador, has become one of the most important players in the
trade and main sources of income in a country’s development, but in recent years it has had
negative impacts. The Covid-19 pandemic was declared by OMS a public health
emergency of international concern (Program, 2020). Covid-19 has affected the tourism
economic crisis in different ways, for example, social problems in the tourism sector and
tourist destinations inaccessible.

Over the years, El Salvador had a great impact on many tourist attractions, which stand out
for their variety of climates, waters, mountains, food, and others. Thus, generating an
increase of 14.7% in foreign currency, thanks to the 225,529 visitors (Valdez, January
2020). Covid-19 is one of the causes of the economic crisis in El Salvador in the tourism
sector. Tourism has been the most affected of all the major economic sectors due to the
closure of airports, borders and the restriction of the mobility of foreigners. Because of this,
many people did not enter or leave for another country during the pandemic. Therefore, the
tourism industry affects business chains, for example, in the food, transportation,
infrastructure, accommodation, recreation, and travel agency sectors, and this is why the
entrepreneurs decided to close their businesses to avoid crowds of people and prevent the
spread of the virus. For this reason, the government of El Salvador placed a quarantine for
approximately seven months because too many people did not follow the biosecurity
measures. According to the Ministry of Tourism Morena Valdez, an approximate the 1.145
million foreign currencies would be obtained due to the drop in international tourism
(Valdez, 2020). Also, these problems affect the increase and process of improving the
economy of the tourism sector.

The pandemic has had social effects too on the tourism sector. The lack of biosecurity
measures. Which are, the use of alcohol gel, masks, safety glasses, and gloves in different
places such as hospitals, banks, companies, etc. According to the Ministry of Health,
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biosecurity measures should be followed and fulfilled as "The use of masks and physical
distancing remain key tools, especially in areas of high transmission, and vaccines also
have a key role to avoid the worst consequences of the pandemic" (Health, 19). In addition,
Covid 19 has increased due to people not complying with biosecurity standards ordered by
the Ministry of Health, causing the rejection of people who do comply with the regulations.
These aspects affect the process of social development in people due to Covid-19
infections.

Consequently, tourist destinations were inaccessible for a too long time during times of
pandemic to avoid crowds in the different tourist destinations and Covid 19 contagion.
Also, due to the inaccessibility of tourist sites, there is no trained personnel to keep them in
order and thus causing problems with maintenance and proper cleaning in different places
like (recreational spaces, hotels, restaurants, etc.) Moreover, the lack of information that
staff does not have of tourist destinations that do not comply with the established biosafety
standards, being this a problem for the attendance of national and international tourists.
Tourist destinations are extremely importants in these different areas; Therefore, these
aspects affected a lot in the development of the tourism that the tourists destinations offer in
El Salvador.

As a result, the pandemic of covid-19 has greatly affected tourism during the last two years
and has been the main cause of all the change that has occurred in the economic sector,
social sector, and the different tourist destinations of El Salvador. Therefore, the Minister of
Tourism Morena Valdez confirms that through the work of the government of President
Nayib Bukele, El Salvador has managed to recover 81% of the tourism that was lost during
the pandemic (Valdez, El Salvador, Covid-19, 2020) In other words, tourism is positioned
again as one of the most visited in Central America places and is evolving day by day.
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References

Program, U. N. (20 de July de 2020). Tourism affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. America Latina ,

America Latina.

Valdez, M. (26 de August de 2020). Losses in the tourism area. San Salvador, El Salvador.

Valdez, M. (14 de mayo de 2020). El Salvador, Covid-19. San Salvador, El Salvador.

Health, M. o. (28 de septiembre de 19). Covid-19 pandemic. San Salvador, El Salvador.