in Financial News, Latest News, Latin America & Caribbean, North America, Regions March 9, 2025 0
The IAADFS Summit of the Americas explores the financial and social trends shaping the travel and tourism sectors
Shifting travel and financial trends in the Americas were the focus for the opening session of the 2025 Summit of the Americas in Miami this morning.
Opening the event, IAADFS Chairman Rene Riedi highlighted the “promising” outlook for travel in the region, with passenger numbers in North America set to rise 7.5% to hit 422 million in 2025, while Latin Americas will see 6.2% growth to 258 million. Both are slightly below the predicted global average of 8.3% growth, but Reidi said they are “indicative of a positive momentum in the region”.
He also underlined the changing needs of the travel retail sector and its focuses: “Today’s travellers increasingly prioritise seamless omnichannel experiences…over traditional cost concerns. The era where products only needed to be reasonably priced is evolving.”
John Price, Managing Director of Americas Market Intelligence (AMI), put a spotlight on Latin America, outlining the changing nature of tourism in the region, shaped by “niche” travel trends such as adventure tourism, digital nomads, eco-friendly and wellness travel, personalised and experience-based journeys.
“The industry has changed dramatically,” he said. “Today we are almost overwhelmed by the choices we have, but what it does is allow us to express our individualism.”
The Covid pandemic, he explained, changed the game for the region, with locations such as Cuba and Barbados, which closed, seeing tourism numbers drop 49% and 27% respectively. Meanwhile those locations which took a more liberal approach such as the Yucatan (+113%) and the Bahamas (+57%) are flourishing.
Mexico, Price argued, “learned from SARS” and did city-based restrictions, not a national approach. However, the growth in travel is exposing “infrastructure shortfalls” and “serious fiscal deficits” in the region.
Turning his attention to the financial state of the Latin Americas region, Price argued that Latin America is a “region of 60 million people” for the travel retail sector, due to wealth disparities. “[It is a] sea of poverty with islands of extreme wealth,” he told delegates.
Price also highlighted the power of Argentina, which is set to experience GDP growth of $245bn. “If projections prove correct this is a tremendous opportunity to re-enter a market which has essentially been abandoned for a decade,” he explained.
Despite this, Brazil is set to be the biggest outbound tourism market for the region in 2025/26, Price said, with the country’s market set to be worth $20.99bn, followed by Argentina ($12.7bn) and Mexico ($11.06bn).
Meanwhile, the market is being shaped by “Zoomers and Boomers”, Price said. Gen Z are 20% of Latin America today, set to hit 27% by 2035. They are high savers and uncertain of the future. As financially-literate and socially-conscious consumers, they are also brand disruptors: “They don’t care what brands their parents bought, and that scares the hell out of legacy brands,” Price said.
Latin Americas meanwhile is the “fastest aging population in the world”. Older people are now getting their “day in the sun”, Price pointed out, since reformation of pension laws 30 years ago means this is the first generation of retirees to have money.
“This is a boom for your industry,” Price argued, as spend on travel rises for people aged 50 and above.
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