Most visited Latin American countries 2021

Mexico was the most visited destination by international tourists in Latin America in 2021, surpassing 30 million tourist arrivals in that year. In the second place, but far behind, was the Dominican Republic.

A global tourism powerhouse

By developing airport infrastructure and calibrating new direct flights, Mexico has set international tourism high on its priorities list. At the forefront of Mexico's spike in international tourism is the FONATUR, or Mexico's National Fund for Tourism Development. The tourism body worked in the expansion of Cancun's airport and other four key tourist airports in the country. Plus, Mexico City's airport added new international direct flights in the 2010s, resulting in being rated as the best internationally connected airport in Latin America in 2019. With this and other developments in this sector, the North American country managed to rank among the top 20 destinations in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Ranking that year.

South America's tourism leader

Through its geographically diverse landscape and globally recognized wine industry, Argentina has grown its international tourism sector. The influx of foreign visitors to Argentina can in some way be attributed to the country's air-travel infrastructure. The national air carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas, was one of the top airline operating in Latin America in 2019. That same year, passenger traffic to Argentinian airports grew by four percent. Though in April 2020, in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of international air travel tourists to Argentina came to a complete halt, ensuing a similar fate of the global tourism industry.