These 1.3 million visitors, she added, result into US$1,447 million in foreign exchange income. Sixty-eight percent come to the country by air and the rest by land borders, with the United States being the main country of origin, with 61%, followed by Guatemala, with 22%.

Minister Valdez said that the expenditure made by these people has increased, going from US$113 per day in 2019 to US$140 or US$160, in periods of stay ranging from two to four weeks, with the main reasons for the trip being: tourism, work, business, world-class surfing events and "crypto tourism".

"By 2022, the projection is estimated at 1.8 million visitors and US$1.6 billion in foreign exchange income, a 15% growth”, she said.

The president of the ISTU, Eny Aguiñada, shared the projection of domestic tourism at the close of 2021, which will be estimated at a total of 9.2 million trips, with a total of US$295 million in economic movement.

"The numbers we are projecting at the close of this year are quite good. Tourism has gone from lagging behind to leading. We have reached levels we had in 2019, thanks to the good management of the pandemic", she indicated and said that by 2022, the Government estimates the reach at 9.5 million trips with a total expenditure of US$313 million.

Regarding the number of visitors to ISTU recreational parks during 2021, it is projected to close with 1.7 million visitors, which will leave more than $2 million in income in the different recreational parks.

Finally, the Vice Minister of Culture detailed that through the Dirección Nacional de Museos y Salas de Exposiciones, around 40 new art exhibitions were generated, with more than 42 thousand visitors to date, highlighting the exhibitions at the Aeropuerto Internacional de El Salvador “San Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez”.

"The Dirección Nacional de Artes recorded more than 50 thousand attendees in the more than 170 presentations of the casts nationwide in theaters and non-conventional spaces, such as squares and CUBO", he said; while "the Dirección Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural reported more than 118 thousand people who visited the archaeological parks and heritage spaces.