Among the more than 10 institutions that participate in the referred plan, are those that make up the Tourism branch. This is with the objective of guaranteeing that the destinations to be visited have everything necessary for those who visit them.

The head of the Instituto Salvadoreño del Turismo (ISTU), Eny Aguiñada, highlighted that between july 29 and 30, there was an increase of 26% in the total number of visits to tourist sites administered by the ISTU, the Ministerio de Turismo, CORSATUR, the Ministerio de Cultura and the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente.

According to Aguiñada, this last weekend of july 2023, the different destinations registered a total of 165,121 visitors.

Among them, 93,000 went to public tourist sites; 63,000 to public beaches; 9,000 to cultural sites and 121 to natural protected areas.

The department of La Libertad is the one with the highest number of visits, as there were tens of thousands who went to the Puerto de La Libertad Tourist Complex, El Majahual, Sunset Park, for example.

Together with the Ministerio de Turismo, the teams of the Policía Nacional Civil, the Fondo Solidario para la Salud, Dirección Nacional de Protección Civil, and other agencies, are making sure that the population enjoys its days off with the minimum risk and with an efficient response to any eventuality. So far, the Institute does not report any tragedy in the places under surveillance.

The ISTU official highlighted that, also during these two days of july, 22,000 people entered the country by air. A majority of them came from the US.

From a broader perspective, the president of ISTU explained that, at the end of the first semester of 2023, El Salvador has received 1.6 million international visitors, which implies a growth of 37% compared to 2022. In the same period, 5.1 million people have visited the national parks.

The optimal conditions of citizen security and the strong investment that has been made in tourism-oriented infrastructure allow these results to remain positive, to the benefit of the national productive sectors.

Translated by: A.M