When will Guatemala Borders open? Perhaps not soon enough for most.

When will Guatemala Borders open? Perhaps not soon enough for most.

Guatemala’s Tourism industry supports, Restaurants, Bars, Hotels, Spas, and Resorts, as many other countries have taken a huge financial loss as a direct result of the Guatemala Border closure due to Covid-19.

Tikal, Guatemala City, Antigua, Chichi Market, and Lake Atitlan have been the hardest hit by the closure of Guatemala to the outside world. I do not dismiss the fact that the entire country is hurting.

Many in the Tourism industry think that once the Guatemala borders are open, Tourists will come back by the millions as they have in the past years. You are sadly incorrect for many reasons. Travel is a luxury item; the US economy that feeds Tourism to Guatemala is in the tank with a record and growing unemployment. Not to forget the rest of the world.

Airlines around the world are heading into Bankruptcy, planes fly tourists to Guatemala, and we will see limited flights with higher prices across the board when the border reopens.

The Tourism sector in the US estimates by the end of 2020 2 million will have lost their jobs.

If we are all lucky, we might see some form of limited tourism by late fall this year. Tourism is an important economic revenue base for Guatemala. While no plans are even talked about by the Guatemala Government for financial aid for Tourism, the value Tourism brings to this country cannot be overlooked and I would assume will not be.

Tourism and Trade are all Guatemala has. In 2018, the contribution of travel and tourism to GDP (% of GDP) for Guatemala was 7.4 %. Guatemala generated around 1.55 billion US dollars in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 2.0 percent of its gross domestic product.

We will all have to accept the fact that a large percentage of those involved in Guatemala Tourism will not survive the financial losses caused by COVID-19. We are not alone, Tourism as a whole will suffer for a number of years.

Guatemala President Alejandro Giammattei explained that he already has stipulated the moment when the economy will be reactivated in the country and when the malls will reopen. However, he did not give dates and clarified that it will depend on how coronavirus disease evolves, as “it is a health emergency with economic implications”.

Guatemala was expected to reach 85.30 USD Billion by the end of 2020, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts’ expectations. In the long-term, the Guatemala GDP is projected to trend around 86.00 USD Billion in 2021.  Both require an open border.