Planning to travel to Latin America for business? Here’s a general overview of the current situation in the region
With business travel down significantly due to the pandemic, coupled with recessions in a few markets, average hotel and restaurant prices decreased across Latin America in 2020, with only a few exceptions. Hotel prices have gone down around 20 % in the region and so have airline tickets. Domestic travel has increased overall and with the borders closed and mobility restrictions, international business trips have become very difficult.
Air routes and capacity have been greatly affected, with the major players in the region filing for bankruptcy: Latam, Avianca and Aeromexico. With business travel dropping around 50 %, these airlines saw it hard to keep healthy numbers.
Prices kept high in places like San Juan in Puerto Rico and San José in Costa Rica, while there were sharp declines in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Bogotá.
Colombia made some changes to its tourism law that eliminated the value added tax for hotels, restaurants and bars to support the hospitality industry while economic crisis keeps Argentina’s process in the low.
Terrestrial transportation costs have remained the same while costs of meals vary from city to city, with increases in Guatemala, San José and Mexico City and costs down in Bogotá and Buenos Aires. Hotel prices in general have decreased all over the region. Most hotels are open with limited capacity and servicing mostly the domestic markets.
One of the challenges during this pandemic is that the situation in countries changes constantly, and it’s particularly challenging in Latin America where the information available is varied and changes almost daily.
While countries in the region have begun to administer Covid-19 vaccines, many countries have limited health care infrastructure and there aren’t the resources or technology to distribute the shots as quickly as it’s desired.
It’s important for travelers to be aware that although Covid-19 case levels may be decreasing, other pre-pandemic concerns remain, such as the zika virus, dengue, malaria and crime.
Still, the vaccines and testing have brought hope to the region. Vaccinations have started to be applied in most countries now and some governments have implemented vaccine certification requirements or PCR tests to travel to or from the country.
In addition to the vaccine providing hope, there are signs of life when it comes to business travel in the region.
In the case of Mexico, oil and gas, and health care and telecom have showed more activity while In Colombia, medical research and oil and gas are the areas with movement. There is a trend of higher hotel bookings in most countries, but these numbers are driven by domestic travel, while terrestrial transportation is being used more than air transportation.