Open Guatemala Borders, WHEN, and WHY NOT?

Open Guatemala Borders, WHEN, and WHY NOT?

Guatemala Government closed its borders to the outside world in March in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID 19 throughout the county. This action has devastated the Tourism industry throughout the country. Guatemala relies heavily on tourist dollars 7.4% of the country’s GDP based on Tourism. Areas hardest hit by the closure include Tikal, Guatemala City, Antigua, Chichi, Livingston, and Lake Atitlan.

Guatemala Mayan Ruins Tikal

In this post I am not going to express my opinion of how the Guatemala President has managed the COVID outbreak, social media users have expressed their opinions about his actions.

The point of this post is about will tourism return to Guatemala and help revive the Guatemala economy? Many in the tourism sector felt this was going to be a short-lived event. We are close to 100 days of complete closure with ever-changing curfews. Guides, shuttle services, boat captains, and all related travel services left with no income to survive.

Open Guatemala Borders, WHEN, and WHY NOT?

Rumors of the country reopening continue without facts. The law imposing the closing expires July 3^rd called Calamity. If the borders were to open in July for Travel, the reality is who will travel to Guatemala, who can afford to travel due to the economic situation most countries face, and many countries’ borders are either closed or offer limited region travel to other countries.

Open Guatemala Borders, WHEN, and WHY NOT?

Tourism as we once all benefited from has changed and will not return in the near future, not this year for Guatemala. For those who disagree or keep hoping look at the world economy and overall world state of COVID 19. Based on these facts, no reason exists for the Guatemala Government to keep the country closed from Travel. Along with Tourism Guatemala Trade has been impacted and Trade is the GDP for Guatemala.

We will all have to find a new way to survive this financial crisis.

Open Guatemala Borders, WHEN, and WHY NOT?