I can see that El Salvador claims they got way more tourists this year than last year (a total of 1.1 million tourists in 6 months versus a total of 1.2 million tourists last year). The article on Cointelegraph says 'last year' but also refers to it as 2019, which must be some sort of mistake.
Needless to say, if 1.1 million is a total figure, it certainly can't all be attributed to Bitcoin (and from what I've seen, it's not). And if last year is 2021 (not 2019), then the increase can be easily attributed to relaxation of covid policies. In 2019, El Salvador had 2.64 million tourists. It doesn't seem like this year will beat that, even.

I can see it increasing tourism for people who use like BTC and want to go to a location that promotes supports uses it.

If I was someone who wanted to go someplace in Central America for a beach holiday for a week during the winter here I could see the fact that outside of the flights I could 'live on BTC' there it would influence my travel decision.

The true numbers are going to be hard to figure for a while because of the pandemic lock-downs and travel restrictions tourism numbers are all distorted vs previous years.

-Dave

Their statistic are useless since they only record how many tourists visit El Salvador alone, they need to have recorded the whole store of how much the Bitcoin was used since all the businessman getting forced to implemented Bitcoin as an alternative payment. If there's many Bitcoin transaction on El Salvador, we can say many people were using Bitcoin, but if not then there's no relation between tourists and Bitcoin.

AFAIK Bitcoin usage in El Salvador are quite high around 10% from all the citizens, I think Bitcoin may attract tourists but not significant.

I think we are judging too soon, if we want to give statistics on tourism in El Salvador we must also not forget to put the pandemic and timing into consideration, is nearly a year since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin and the level of awareness is still low within the citizens, so Bitcoin usage in El Salvador will still be low. But then if you have been following up with the El Salvador Bitcoin adoption thread you will find quite a lot of information and statistics on records on Bitcoin adoption and El Salvador Bitcoin city and other government agencies just like the beach that aid the tourism industry in El Salvador.
Check this thread: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/5342087.msg60593003#msg60593003

 
Maybe you skipped this; I also found a tweet that best suits everyone under the thread that said is not all about bitcoin. El Salvador President said so;



So, I'll need different views on the question though everyone is skeptical if bitcoin is the reason why they is an increase in the number of tourists in the nation. I think the tweet above can reshape your views now, thanks.

We don't know if the statement is true or false because we are not in El Salvador and see firsthand whether the people there or visitors pay with bitcoin as it says. Even if that is true, it is an attraction to attract more tourists, especially tourists who have a lot of bitcoins, to experience using bitcoin as a means of payment.

But hopefully, the news is true so that more people will visit El Salvador. But actually, El Salvador needs to see the tourism potential in their country as an attraction for tourists and maybe they can use bitcoin as a means of payment.

Bukele is attributing the results due to bitcoin, surf and the crackdown on gangs. Nevertheless, though these factors likely weigh-in to some extent, there is no real evidence that they do, nor to the extent that each one applies.

The World Tourism Barometer report give El Salvador a 6% increase in tourism earnings over data from 2019. 2019 is used as a reference pre-pandemic reference base, thus this increase is seen as a sign of recovery. This other document from the UNWTO gives El Salvador a -1% decrease in tourism arrivals vs 2019 (see slide on page 15).

All the above, albeit not being much in terms of depth, suggests that tourism in El Salvador is essentially as it was before the pandemic, but does not reflect a boost of any kind compared to 2019 that we could say is heavily influenced by bitcoin. Logically on a personal scale we’d find hundreds of testimonials pointing to them using bitcoin there and having fun in the country, but that does not seem like something to extrapolate as being a core driver in recovering pre-pandemic figures, and it certainly does not seem to show in terms of a boost up from 2019 figures.

I am not getting what is the relationship between Bitcoin legal tender & tourism. I don't see any reasonable scenario between that. Also, increase tourists doesn't mean Bitcoin, it's likely due to the COVID break. If tourist visits El Salvador due to Bitcoin being legal tender, then they should curious to use Bitcoin there. But not happening anything like this.

It is right that El-Savador does not adopt bitcoin all because of tourist attraction but in it adoption comes a tourist advantage and opportunities in which it has utilize such opportunity to make a good economy advantage as well.


Do you think 15 bitcoin worth of transaction is a small figure with respect to USD, when you do the conversion you will discover that it's a reasonable amount at least on just a single entity made for transaction.


Those vendors may not necessarily use only the chivo wallet but i can assure you that everyone there has a good advantage in making use of the chivo wallet


Exactly!