Ecuador: Holiday days revive pre-pandemic tourism

President of the Chamber of Tourism calculates less influx than in Carnival, but more visits than in 2019.

The Holy Week holiday began on Friday, April 15 and ended that same day, but tourists took advantage of Saturday and Sunday to extend the trip and enjoy the days off.

One of the most visited destinations was the province of Santa Elena. Around 100,000 tourists came to the resorts of the peninsula to enjoy the climate, the beaches and the varied gastronomy.

Luis Tenempaguay, vice president of the Chamber of Tourism of the peninsular jurisdiction, considered that, although this holiday did not have the same influx as in the days of Carnival, they received the necessary visitors to meet the expected figures.

Tenempaguay stated that gastronomic sites and nightlife centers were the most popular during the weekend, while the general percentage of hotel occupancy was 90%.

Likewise, in southern Ecuador, where, according to a preliminary report from representatives of the tourism sector, around 120,000 tourists visited the city of Cuenca to tour its churches and main avenues.

The tourism operators of the Azuaya capital were optimistic. They say that the flow of visitors that was recorded from Friday to Sunday “recalled what was there before the pandemic. And now, two years later, “normality is advancing steadily and for the better,” said Verónica Reinoso, a tour operator.

Holbach Muñetón, president of the Guayas Chamber of Tourism, calculates that the flow of tourists that was registered in the different localities of the country has not been like the one that occurred on the Carnival holiday, but, even so, it continues to exceed the figures which were recorded, in this context, in 2019.

“You have to be realistic, the figures for Carnival have always been higher than those for Easter, but in this case the tourists who traveled this weekend exceed the figures for 2019. That is good and conveys the message of a tourist revival solid and full of caution”, maintains Muñetón and details that there were also localities that did not have their hotel capacity at the top, but still managed to reactivate.

In 2019, the Ministry of Tourism reported that around 576,000 tourists traveled between the different locations in the country during the Holy Week holiday. That is to say, in this 2022, according to the preliminary projection of Muñetón, that figure was surpassed by the visitors during the holidays.

To control the return and improve the flow of vehicles returning from the country’s resorts to Guayaquil, the Ecuadorian Transit Commission (CTE) implemented the vehicular counter-flow from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on April 17.

At that time, the lanes were only enabled for private vehicles and not for heavy vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles.

According to the entity, in a report issued yesterday afternoon, during the three days off, 51 traffic accidents were recorded on the country’s roads, in which three people lost their lives and 53 were injured.