I go to Latin America many times a year but one thing I always notice is that I am one of the few gringos on the plane. When I get to the destination, I almost never see or hear American tourists and actually it’s more common to see European tourists.
Do most Americans tend to avoid Latin America because of the crime perception or are there other reasons?
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Will you be paying for my trip?
Should more be visiting Latin America? Tourism can be a really bad thing for the people in the area you’re visiting sometimes.
I’d argue it’s because of the absurd amounts of shows we have about cartels and portraying all police there as corrupt except for customs that will throw the maximum at you for weed which has become so popular here
Well, it was like 3 weeks ago when it hit the news that Americans were kidnapped and killed by cartels in Mexico, so no, I can imagine that most don’t feel all that safe
It’s just as expensive if not more, to get there vs go to Europe and people view it as dangerous and not as interesting as Europe.
I’ve been to Peru and plan to go to Argentina/Chile within the next few years.
Time.
I would love to go to colombia more often and neighboring countries, but so many fucking layovers
Well, a Latin American country, Mexico, is literally the number 1 foreign tourist destination for Americans, so there is that. Costa Rica is also very popular, and Peru had become pretty popular too in recent years. But beyond these, a lot of Latin American countries don’t get as much tourism because of a combination of bad reputation for crime, and relative lack of marketing and publicity about them. It’s a shame because the region has a lot to offer in terms of culture and landscapes.
IMHO, image problems which are fairly easy to understand. My family is Asian and American (not to be confused with Asian-American). We do travel a fair bit but generally travel to places that have an image of safety tbh.
Americans don’t know tons about Latin American countries unless they have a family background. So LatAm looks like this –
* Mexico – great food, drugs and gangs, spring break
* Venezuela – nationalized US assets and got in an s*& fight over debt and has a major debt problem
* Brazil – cool festivals and soccer, but also crime and poverty
* Ecuador – sort of tense relations. Personally not a good impression.
* Colombia, I mean…I liked Encanto, but I didn’t care for the cartel and 1980s relations
Which leaves me with major spots of Argentina and Chile. Yay! Wine country. I’d go there.
Latin America often incorporates Mexico. And we visit the heck out of Mexico.
ETA: What part of Latin America are you referring to? Cancun, Jonestown, and Quito are going to have very different relationships to America.
It seems that Southeast Asia has stolen LatAm’s American tourism market. It’s much trendier to go to Thailand and Indonesia these days.
>Do most Americans tend to avoid Latin America because of the crime perception or are there other reasons?
It’s mostly this. If I’m spending hundreds of even a thousand or two dollars on a trip, I’m gonna go somewhere where I don’t have to worry about being kidnapped or extorted by local police. I’ll just take that money and go to Japan or visit some places in Europe. Or hell, even just visit places here in the U.S.
Long story short, it’s too expensive and too risky when you can get more, and be safer, for that kind of time and money
I mean Americans are normally the largest visitor group in every country in Latin America + the Caribbean. Roughly 40 million Americans visit Mexico every year, more than the 15 million who go to Canada. Those are 1 and 2 respectively for American travels abroad and they both share borders with the USA.
I would add the following, a lot of people visiting have family in Latin America so are not Touristy-tourists, differing USA/Europe holiday seasons may factor in here. Roughly 1/10 of Central America and Mexico’s citizens live in America and it rises to around 1/3 in the Anglo-Caribbean. Still of the 1 million tourists visiting El Salvador, 96% came from the Americas, likely a lot of Americans in that number.
I’m not a fan of hot, muggy environments. I live in one. I don’t particularly want to spend my vacation in a hotter, muggier place. That said, one of my favorite things is history, and I loved seeing the Mayan ruins and learning more about them. On the third hand, my last time down in Southern Mexico, we were down around Costa Playa (I think) when the State Dept issued a travel warning about going there due to cartel violence and a passenger ferry got blown up (that part turned out to be a case of insurance fraud). It’s just more dependable to go to Japan or Europe to me.
We don’t have time and money simultaneously. Travel is expensive and most of us don’t get enough time off to enjoy such a vacation fully.
Probably because most Americans are busy and have other things to do.
Because we have the same perceptions about Mexico and on South as euros have about the USA 😂
Crime is a big factor. Parts of Mexico are on the CIA’s do not travel list, so are areas of Central America.
Colombia has a long history of violence that many people associate it with. Venezuela is a no-go. The other northern counties aren’t exactly tourism destinations. Brazil and Argentina are a looooong way to travel. I know people who have traveled to Peru, Ecuador, and Chile.
Crime
I don’t have money to travel anywhere abroad.
Next?
I’m dubious of OP’s claim. US tourism to Mexico and the Caribbean is huge. For that matter, more than 3 million American citizens **live** in Latin America (Puerto Rico). I’m sure there are some Latin American destinations that draw more European tourists than Americans, and maybe that’s where OP likes to go, but for the claim that there are more European tourists to Latin America as a whole, I’d like to see the actual data.
ETA: [Found some data](https://embamex.sre.gob.mx/eua/index.php/en/2016-04-09-20-40-51/tourism/1762-tourism-statistics-2). Of the 20.6 million international visitors who arrived in Mexico by air in 2022, 63% of them were from the US. I have to guess that tourists entering by land are even more heavily Americans.
Going back to 2019 (pre-COVID), more than 55 million Americans visited Latin America (40 million to Mexico, 9 million to the Caribbean, the rest spread over Central America and South America). ([Source](https://www.statista.com/statistics/909289/number-visitors-united-states-latin-america-sub-region/))
[According to World Bank data](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ST.INT.ARVL?locations=ZJ), Mexico is the destination of roughly half of all international tourists visiting Latin America. Given the heavy levels of US tourists to Mexico, I think it’s fair to say that a significant portion (probably a plurality and possibly a majority) of international tourism to Latin America is by Americans.
There are some places I’d like to go (eg, Costa Rica), but in general, I don’t imagine that when I think of foreign travel. I picture Scotland, Iceland, Japan. Just the places that appeal to me.
I’ve noticed that certain locations around the world attract certain nationalities. We’ve been to touristy areas in Europe where we were one of the few Americans who visit. The British tend to flock to certain places. The Australians go to other destinations. I’m not sure why, it’s just the way tourism is.
The crime and threat to foreign tourists turn me off from going to some of the countries. I’d love to explore Mexico more, but the [State Department](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-advisory.html) has warnings for probably half the Mexican states. I get I could likely go to a resort and be 100% fine, but why would I go to Mexico to lay on beach? I can do that in Florida for a fraction of the price.
Many of the other countries have [travel advisories as well](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html). Venezuela is a Level 4 meaning don’t travel there at all and many of the other countries are a Level 3, meaning reconsider traveling there.
Would I like to travel to Central America and the northern part of South America? Absolutely, but if the State Department is saying “maybe don’t” I’m going to take that warning seriously.
Now if I knew someone from that country and was going with them, it might be a different story since they would be able to guide me and show me where the good and bad areas are. On my own though? I’d stick out and the language barrier would hinder me as well.
Uh, Latin America is probably the most visited region for Americans.