In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Byron Arango, Head of Tourism at the Guatemalan Tourism Institute.
What has INGUAT presented here in Buenos Aires at the FIT?
We had the opportunity to show a little bit of Guatemala. We have the main tourist attractions and we brought in tour operators who are focused on adventure. We have a lot of adventure to offer from Guatemala.
And obviously the classic titles such as Tikal, Lake Atitlán, the colonial city of Antigua Guatemala and the gastronomy. We had coffee samples and tastings of Guatemalan gastronomy with typical sweets. We know that Argentines like to travel, that they don't like to repeat destinations too many times and that they look for something different. So that is what we are betting on as the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism, to be able to reach that Argentine who wants to travel, to plan their vacations and to experience Guatemala with the variety and range of tourist opportunities it has. In one place, you can relax in a relaxation spa, climb an active volcano and live a unique experience, go to the beach or to a coffee plantation.
You can go to a town in Guatemala and see a cultural display without it having been planned. There are ceremonies there, the way the people and our indigenous people wear textiles is very traditional. It is a living, active culture, and wherever you go you will find it.
It is important to highlight when we talk about indigenous peoples, that you have the greatest heritage of the Mayans.
That's right, we have 22 languages that are spoken at the national level today. We have Xinca, which is another language, and we also have the Garifuna language. Guatemala is multicultural par excellence, and this is something that should not be lost.
Guatemala seeks to preserve its native and folkloric heritage. There are interesting museums to visit, right?
Of course, we have many museums in various cities, covering anthropology, culture, the entire classical, pre-classical and pre-Columbian part, and Mayan culture. There are countless museums, including military and railway museums.
What is the connectivity situation in Guatemala?
For Argentina we have two airlines that are working, which are the ones with the most frequent frequencies, Copa and Avianca. And just today we were in a meeting with the Secretary of Tourism of Rosario, Santa Fe, who told us that they already have a direct connection to Panama. So in the end that opens the doors both for tourists who are going to visit Guatemala, as well as for Guatemalans who come to Argentina. The same thing happens in Guatemala, we have connectivity in some places that are important from a tourist point of view and we also have all this part to offer. We can move quickly, we are a relatively small country, but with a lot of potential.
What are your plans for the rest of the year and the first stage of 2025 in terms of performing at different events or promotional tours?
Currently, we are planning to increase tourism and the economic impact in Guatemala, and that is why we have such an active and strong participation. We have recovered very well after the pandemic and we have very good expectations. We have an annual growth of between 13% and 19% depending on the destination that is going to visit us. In the case of Argentina, last year we closed with 9,700 people who visited us, and this year we are going to close with a little more and that already levels us with what we had in 2019, which was 10,745 Argentines who came to visit for tourism. Now we also have a big data platform that helps us to better measure the preferences and destinations that the countries that are visiting us are looking for and thus we can make some attractions even more accessible and focus them on the market that we are really going to target.
What are your expectations for next year?
In general, we are going to increase, we currently have 2.4 million, what is projected for next year is to reach 3.2.
It is a broad challenge, but we have the tools. Big Data is very important to us. We didn't have it before. This year we are launching it and it gives us the potential to achieve this goal that we are seeking.
Private sector investment is important to support growth. How do you work with the private sector in this regard?
The private sector is willing, they know that in the end the economic benefits will come to them. They are investing in tourism as such. There are new places, new ways of doing tourism that businessmen are taking advantage of very well and precisely in this type of activities at the fairs and all the business meetings that we are doing at the Latin American level, they can strengthen relationships with other local operators in the cities where we are and thus raise the levels of tourism that we have, and obviously for them it is a benefit.