Caracas visited by tourists

 

Warning: Creating default object from empty value in /home/latingui/public_html/wp-content/plugins/SILO-Bot-Elite/index.php on line 229

The Venezuelan capital stands as the ninth among the 10 cities in the region most visited by international tourists, according to a study released recently by MasterCard.

Research entitled Global Cities Index Annual Target and includes 19 Latin American capitals, taking into account the number of visitors and their spending they make. It is estimated that this year the target major cities of Latin America received 16.6 million visitors, of whom 800,000, ie 4.8% will pass through Caracas.

Like other cities of Latin America and the world, the Venezuelan capital, and more specifically Maiquetía, serves as a hub for many airlines. Hence the high mobility of people in transit, either in or out, and also the large number of tourists destination is accounted for.

Yuwan Hedrick-Wong, MasterCard’s global consultant and author of the study, said that in some cities hub transit passengers account for up to two thirds of total arrivals, so we have only considered inaccurate numbers coming as visitors to these destinations. “We have developed a process to eliminate this effect and to reflect a real number,” he said, stating that the number of visitors is divided into two categories: residents and those who are not, allowing you to examine the numbers and determine the percentage of “real” visitors.

Improvement over the global crisis

The MasterCard report envisions a 7.3% increase in the number of tourists who arrive in the Latin American region in 2012 compared to last year. In total it is expected that large Latin capitals located in the top ten reach 16.6 million people, spending an estimated $ 16.3 million, which contrasts with the global economic stage of crisis.

Among the most visited cities are Mexico City (1), Buenos Aires (2) and Sao Paulo (3) and the tail of the top ten accompany Caracas (9), Dominican Republic (8) and Quito (10).

In Argentina’s capital is recorded the largest tourist spending $ 3 million, is Sao Paulo with $ 2.9 million. Caracas is expected to decline 9.3% in the indicator, up to $ 800,000, compared with 2011, when it stood at $ 900,000.

The capital of Venezuela highlighted in the study for the second time as part of the top ten Latin cities, while Recife, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Monterrey, Mexico, stand out as emerging cities visited. The study projects that in Quito, Bogota and San Jose will be an increase in the disbursement of money from international tourists.

In the case of Brazil, the report notes that the city of Recife is the region with faster growth in the number of tourists who visit (37.6%), while for Rio de Janeiro is shaping up of 28.6%.