Tourism Booms in El Salvador as Bitcoin is Adopted

El Salvador’s tourism sector represents one of the largest sectors of economic growth for the Latin American country. Since the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador, one of the most positively impacted sectors of the country has been tourism.
According to the Minister of Tourism (MITUR), Morena Valdez, all expectations of recovery in the tourism sector (following COVID) were exceeded, due to Bitcoin. The country only expected to receive 1.1 million visitors on the year, yet 1.4 million visitors ended up visiting.
The head of the MITUR claims to have run a poll to check on tourism activity before and after Bitcoin. The results of the poll indicated that the tourism sector increased in November and December, and did so by more than 30%.
The increase of tourism is thought to have been attributed to the strategy of implementing Bitcoin. According to Valdez, “…usually the flow of tourism has come from neighboring countries in Central America and now, 60% of tourists come from the United States where Bitcoin has been dominating the conversation in the financial industry.”