El Salvador Is Ready for International Meetings and Events

By Jorge J. J. Martínez 

Boris Iraheta, marketing manager for the Salvadorian Tourism Corporation (Corsatur), declared that El Salvador is prepared to host international events.

“We invite you to get to know El Salvador; both in the city and at beaches we have good infrastructure for hotels and restaurants as well as capacity for weddings and conventions. Travel agents can contact us about getting to know first-hand the destination and all that which we have to offer tourists,” said Boris Iraheta.

The hosting of recent events has increased the abundance of land transportation from Honduras and Guatemala primarily, natural markets for the business tourism segment. Colombia is another country interested in conventions.

“The meetings industry in El Salvador is on its way to reactivation. We are now having corporate events, business meetings and incentives. I would say that we are about 50-50 between in-person and hybrid events; we hope to close out the year with only 20 percent of meetings being virtual,” commented Iraheta.

Corsatur is investing in sporting events on a global scale. Surf City El Salvador is one of its most effective promotional endeavors, attracting the International Surfing Association’s upcoming World Surfing Championship and therefore looking to attract not only some of the world’s 35 million surfers but also the 120 million attached to the surfing culture.

Other sporting and artistic events and medical conventions will be held in the Central American country, bringing in visitors from the Caribbean as well as Central and South America.

The promotion of multiple destinations through the Organización del Mundo Maya (Maya World Organization) and the pursuit of the corporate market through specialized magazines in Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States (and with airline-affiliated travel agencies) are among the diverse strategies to be used.

“With respect to the pandemic, we created a bubble of safety and were among the three countries with the least contagion among visitors. This put us on the radar of Canadians and the British, who were attracted by our nature tourism,” stated Corsatur’s marketing manager.

In El Salvador 70 percent of the population has been vaccinated with the three-dose regime. In a country of 6.3 million inhabitants, 10.2 million doses of vaccine have been given.

“We have opened vaccination to neighboring countries such as Guatemala and Honduras, about 8,000 doses every day, which benefits the recovery of tourism,” added Iraheta, who concluded by stating that restrictions for entering the country were lifted last November.