Flight bookings to and from Latin America are very positive, with many airlines increasing capacity on these routes and, accordingly, seat numbers, said, commenting on the results of the trend study. in the Latin American tourism sector in 2018, CEO of ForwardKeys Olivier Jager.
According to him, in terms of inbound tourist flow, South American countries are showing excellent results - plus 12%. The Caribbean countries are less active due to last year's hurricanes, but the recovery process is still underway.
Brazil’s strong surge (incoming bookings for the first half of 2018 were up 16.5% compared to last year) is due to the introduction of an electronic visa for visitors from Australia (since November 2017), the United States, Canada and Japan (since January 2018). This program significantly simplifies the visa application process, reducing the time it takes to apply and the cost (in the case of the United States, from $160 to $40).
As for the outbound flow, over the next three months, Colombia, Brazil and Chile will be the most active markets in Latin America, including in terms of trips to Russia for the 2018 World Cup.
Orders for flights to Russia for the World Cup, which starts in June, are coming most actively from Mexico and Argentina. Incidentally, Argentina is the leader as an outbound market in Latin America. This market is showing growth of 16.6% compared to last year's figures (against the backdrop of the strengthening US dollar). Next comes Brazil - plus 14.2%.
Overall, current bookings for international flights from Latin America and the Caribbean in the first half of 2018 and to date are 9.3% ahead of last year's figures, ForwardKeys is confident.
Source: trn-news.ru
