Tourism, security and nation branding: A comparative descriptive analysis of Ecuador and El Salvador (1990-2023)
Keywords:
Tourism, Security, Country image, Destination branding, Tourism competitivenessAbstract
Through a comparative-descriptive analysis of Ecuador and El Salvador, this study explored the relationship between security, country image, and tourism performance in both countries. It combined a literature review on perceived risk, destination image, and nation branding with a descriptive analysis of an unbalanced bilateral panel comprising 63 country-year observations between 1990 and 2023. The findings showed that El Salvador experienced a faster post-pandemic recovery in tourist arrivals and aggregate tourism expenditure, in a context marked by a sharp decline in the homicide rate, while Ecuador maintained a higher average expenditure per visitor and a tourism structure that was more value-intensive than volume-driven. The results suggest that both countries have followed distinct tourism trajectories; therefore, security should not be interpreted either as an inherent advantage or as a substitute for the destination’s value proposition. In conclusion, El Salvador offers lessons in reputational repositioning, whereas Ecuador highlights a tourism strategy grounded in biodiversity, sustainability, and nature-based tourism. In this sense, cross-sector public policy in both countries articulated security, governance, the improvement of international image, and territorial valorization.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Roberto Andrés Gonzabay Mazza, Christian Washburn Herrera
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