The tourism industry in El Salvador is positioned as the second with the best post-pandemic recovery, according to data from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

The radical strategy to combat COVID-19 and prepare for the recovery of the economy, together with the holding of international surfing championships, are some of the factors to which this marked recovery is attributed, which in January exceeded the pace that the sector showed in 2019, the Minister of Tourism, Morena Valdez, recently reported.

Thus, every day, foreigners and nationals explore the beaches, mountains, and towns of El Salvador, and many of them choose to do so through the Airbnb application.

The platform reported that its usage records in El Salvador are growing sharply and that domestic traveller reservations grew by 280% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2019.

International reserves exceeded 290% growth during the first three months of 2022, compared to what was accumulated in the same season of 2019, before the global impact of the pandemic.

These figures would indicate a strong positioning of the digital platform in the tourism industry, as well as a boost to the already thriving Salvadoran tourism industry.

Likewise, the director of public policy for Airbnb for Central America and the Caribbean, Carlos Muñoz, reported that the platform has also stood out in the rest of the Central American region.

«Traveler searches from Central America, from Guatemala to Panama, grew 95% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2019,» he reported.

Muñoz considered that the success of the digital accommodation platform, born in 2007, lies in the way it connects travelers looking to book unique accommodations with people who offer spaces, obtaining in the process a more intimate experience of getting to know a place while boosting the local economy.

«By sharing entire spaces such as a house or shared spaces such as a room within an apartment, hosts can earn additional income,» the executive said.

The representative of the platform indicated that to make it even easier for users to find the ideal accommodation, they have improved their search engine, which now includes 56 categories that organize shared spaces according to their style, location, or proximity to a travel activity. «These Airbnb categories include more than four million unique shared spaces made possible by hosts from around the world,» Muñoz concluded.