Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, stated that tourism has been recovering quickly due to three factors: surfing, bitcoin and overall crime reduction. El Salvador was one of the 15 countries that managed to take their tourism incomes to pre-pandemic numbers according to data from the World Tourism Organization.

Nayib Bukele State International Tourism Growth Is Powered By Bitcoin in El Salvador

Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador and promoter of the adoption of bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in the country, shared his thoughts about the growth of the tourism income in the Salvadoran country. Bukele said that the growth of tourism income in El Salvador was due to three factors: bitcoin, promotion of surfing, and reductions in crime.

In a tweet, the president stated:

Only a handful of countries have been able to recover its tourism to pre-pandemic levels. And that’s international tourism, so the reasons behind it are mostly bitcoin and surf.

El Salvador has been included in a recent list of countries whose tourist income has returned to pre-pandemic levels. According to the World Tourism Organization, El Salvador has managed to grow its tourism income by 6% when compared to 2019.

This report matches what authorities have reported about the impact of bitcoin’s inclusion in the country since the currency was made legal. In February, Morena Valdez, minister of tourism in the country stated that the tourism industry had risen 30% since this event.

Statistics further show that El Salvador’s crime and homicide rate has dropped significantly since 2020. Moreover, in terms of surf, the El Salvador is home to some of the top rated waves in the world.

National Tourism Also Growing

However, the president made mention of the rise in national tourism and stated:

But internal tourism is growing more, mainly due to our crackdown against gangs.

Bukele’s government was criticized heavily due to the measure sit has taken to stop gang-related crime, declaring a state of emergency that resulted in more than 9,000 individuals being detained last April. Bukele claims that this has led to the rise of the national tourist industry.

To support his arguments, Bukele also referred to the Google Mobility Report. This report is a compilation of data that shows changes in visits to specific places. According to the report, the number of visits to parks, retail and recreation areas, pharmacies and grocery stores has all increased over the past three months.

The government expects new bitcoin investments to bring more supporters to the country. Milena Mayorga, ambassador of El Salvador in the US, recently announced that Bank Of The Future, a cryptocurrency investment platform, was going to invest $6 billion in the country.

What do you think about Nayib Bukele’s view of the influence of Bitcoin on the growth of the tourism industry in El Salvador? Please leave your comments below.

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