El Salvador Claims Central America’s Tourism Crown. The UN Gives It to Costa Rica
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Key Facts
—The claim. El Salvador counted 4.1 million international visitors in 2025, and the Central American tourism secretariat ranks it first in the region.
—The rival count. UN Tourism records 3.7 million for the same year and keeps Costa Rica as the region’s leading destination.
—The customers. Guatemala, the United States and Honduras supplied 87.5% of all arrivals, with Guatemala overtaking the Americans in 2025.
—The road. About half of all visitors arrived overland rather than by air.
—The take. Tourism earned more than $3.5bn in foreign exchange, with the tourism minister putting the figure at $3,635m.
—The follow-through. Arrivals in the first quarter of 2026 reached 1.26 million, up 34% on the same months of 2025.
El Salvador tourism had a record year in 2025, and whether it was a record that made the country Central America’s biggest destination depends entirely on which institution you ask.
The Central American tourism secretariat counted four point one million international visitors and put El Salvador at the top of the isthmus. The United Nations tourism body counted three point seven million and left Costa Rica in first place.
Four hundred thousand visitors separate those two numbers, and a regional crown sits in the gap. Both agencies agree on the direction of travel, which is steeply upward.
Who El Salvador tourism actually serves
The composition of that total is the more revealing number. Guatemala sent one and a half million people, more than a third of the arrivals, and overtook the United States as the largest source market during the year.
Americans came second with one point three million. Honduras sent nearly seven hundred and ninety-two thousand, which on our own arithmetic means those three countries account for close to eighty-eight percent of every arrival.
Two of the three are land neighbours, and between them they supply more than half the visitors. About half of all arrivals crossed a land border rather than an airport.
This is not the long-haul beach boom the brochures imply. It is a regional, overland market, and there is an unglamorous reason for that.
Why the neighbours drive
A one-way ticket from Honduras to El Salvador can cost six or seven hundred dollars. On some regional routes roughly seven of every ten dollars a passenger pays is tax and airport charges rather than airline revenue.
Faced with that, many travellers get in a car or onto a bus rather than book a flight. That is the pattern the arrival figures describe.
The country’s airport nonetheless handled five point two million passengers last year, a figure that counts every traveller through the terminal rather than tourists alone. Air connectivity has widened even as the land borders carry roughly half the visitors.
What the visitors are worth
Tourism brought in more than three and a half billion dollars of foreign exchange, and the tourism minister, Morena Valdez, puts the figure above three thousand six hundred million. As the Salvadoran daily El Diario de Hoy reports, the sector helped cut the country’s current-account deficit to one point two percent of national output.
The state tourism corporation reports that four in five visitors stayed at least one night, for an average of six or seven nights. It puts average daily spending between a hundred and forty and a hundred and fifty dollars.
That figure deserves a second look. Nicaragua’s statistics office found Central American visitors to Nicaragua spending under forty-four dollars a day, in a market where Central Americans are also the largest group.
The two countries measure differently and the comparison is imperfect. Still, El Salvador is reporting a daily spend more than three times the figure its neighbour records for the same kind of traveller.
What changed
El Salvador drew about one point seven million visitors in 2019, so on our own arithmetic the 2025 count is roughly two and a half times that. The World Bank attributes the shift to a sharp fall in crime, which it says removed a key constraint on economic activity and strengthened market confidence.
The bank uses the four million figure itself, which is awkward for the lower United Nations count without settling the argument. The economy grew four percent in 2025, ahead of both Fund and Bank forecasts, and by four point eight percent in the first quarter of this year.
The first three months of 2026 brought one point two six million visitors, three hundred and twenty-one thousand more than a year earlier. Across the wider Central American bloc, arrivals rose five and a half percent to thirty point six million.
So is El Salvador tourism the biggest in Central America?
By the regional secretariat’s count, yes. By the United Nations count, no, and Costa Rica retains the title, so the answer depends on which figure a reader is shown.
Where do the visitors come from?
Overwhelmingly from next door. Guatemala is now the largest source market, ahead of the United States, with Honduras third, and about half of all arrivals cross a land border.
What should an investor watch?
Hotel capacity and the composition of arrivals. A market built on neighbours driving across a border behaves very differently from one built on long-haul flights, and it prices differently too.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many international visitors did El Salvador receive in 2025, and how much foreign exchange did tourism generate?
El Salvador recorded either 4.1 million international visitors according to the Central American tourism secretariat, or 3.7 million according to UN Tourism, depending on the source consulted. Tourism earned more than $3.5 billion in foreign exchange, with the tourism minister citing a figure of $3,635 million.
Which countries supplied the most visitors to El Salvador in 2025?
Guatemala, the United States, and Honduras together accounted for 87.5% of all arrivals. Notably, Guatemala overtook the United States to become the top source of visitors in 2025.
How did El Salvador's tourism perform in early 2026 compared to the same period in 2025?
Arrivals in the first quarter of 2026 reached 1.26 million, representing a 34% increase over the same months in 2025. This suggests the upward trend in visitor numbers continued strongly into the following year.
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