El Salvador extended the stay period for all tourists visiting the country starting this year, President Nayib Bukele said in a tweet.
“The general tourism permits in El Salvador have just been extended from 90 to 180 days,” the president announced.
According to a statement from the Presidential House, the decision will encourage more tourists and international investors to come to El Salvador, taking advantage of the fact that they will be able to stay longer to visit tourist sites or materialize their business and investment plans in the six months that they will be able to stay in the country.
In accordance with the Special Law on Migration and Aliens, the requirements that tourists must meet to extend their stay are: request for extension of non-resident stay; original passport and photocopy of all pages used; and if they are citizens of Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, they must present their identity document, if they used it at the time of their entry.
The government said that the decision to extend the general tourism permit “is consistent with the new security reality that El Salvador is experiencing,” after the war against gangs and the state of emergency announced in March 2022 and that, according to official statistics, helped the country record 171 murder-free days last year.
However, at the end of December, the Canadian government issued an alert for travelers who decide to visit El Salvador, noting that although “violent crime has decreased” when emergency measures were implemented, “homicide, assault, Rape and armed robbery still happen.”
ARRIVAL OF INTERNATIONAL TOURISTS
During 2022, El Salvador recovered 96% of pre-pandemic tourism, registering an income of 2.5 million visitors, said the Ministry of Tourism.
Regarding the spending of visitors during their stay in the Central American country, they exceeded US$2.646 billion, that is, a growth of 50% compared to 2019.
“This is because our international visitors are staying longer in the country, they are spending more, and they are using all the tourism items in our value chain: transportation, hotels, restaurants, recreational sites, among others,” said Morena Valdez, Minister of Tourism.
Regarding internal tourism, public mountain, beach and cultural sites registered a record number of 6.5 million visitors, according to official figures.
With information from Bloomberg