WASHINGTON: Nicaragua’s tourism industry continues to grow aggressively, according to the latest data by Nicaragua’s Central Bank, with revenues from tourism increasing 18.7 percent to US $528.6 million in 2015 from US $445.4 million the year prior, due in large part thanks to longer stays.
According to the Central Bank, foreign tourists spent an average of $41.50 per day, essentially unchanged from the year before. However, tourists visiting the country last year stayed an average of 8.7 days, compared to 7.7 days in 2014.
While Nicaragua’s Central Bank did not release an official figure on the number of foreign tourist arrivals, one can extrapolate from the figures provided that the country received 1,464,063 foreign tourists in 2015 compared to 1,383,831 in 2014, an increase of 80,232 or 5.8 percent.
Costa Rica also set its own new records for tourist arrivals and tourism revenues in 2015, the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) reported in January. ICT reported that 2,665,608 tourists visited Costa Rica last year and spent US $2.8 billion, representing an increase of 5.5 percent in arrivals an a 9 percent increase in revenues over 2014.
This means that tourists visiting Costa Rica continue to spend a lot more – three times more – than those visiting Nicaragua: last year the average tourist to Nicaragua spent a total of just US $361.05, compared to the average US $1,050 spent per tourist arrival in Costa Rica.
