By Ana María RestrepoMany are the comments that have been raised around how the economic crisis can affect the hotel industry and tourism. This taking into account that the price of oil has made air tickets more expensive, the production of hydrocarbons has increased the value of food and the effects of climate change begin to show their negative impact on these industries, being reflected in the reduction of expenses at the destination and hotel occupancy.
If we look at Latin America, we see that the situation described above is not alien to it, however in the medium term there will be interesting investments and changes in the sector. According to the 2008 edition of Caribbean Trends in the Hotel Industry, the Caribbean industry is affected by U.S. economic problems, which will trigger a reduction in occupancy and profits for hotel owners and operators in the region. However, many of the Latino hotels are making adjustments according to the needs of the environment which allows a decrease in costs.
In some Latin American countries, investments in hotels and tourism have not decreased as expected. In the first half of 2008, tourists who visited Panama spent 677 million 289 thousand dollars, which represents an increase of 19.7% over the same period of the previous year. In Colombia the construction of rooms has increased, reaching 858 new rooms in 2007, a figure that will increase to 985 this year and in 2009 will reach 3,294. For its part, the Global Hyatt Corporation chain is analyzing the growth and its incursion into Peru, Colombia and Uruguay.
As we can see, not all forecasts are negative for the hotel industry in Latin America, the challenge now is to continue with environmental practices, in order to reduce costs a little and minimize the negative impact of the world economy.
