El Salvador claim bitcoin attracts tourists right or wrong?

[Pmalek]

Maybe you skipped this;

Since El Salvador adopted Bitcoin as legal tender, thousands of Bitcoiners have made the trip.

I wouldn't say that thousands of new bitcoiners means that tourists are flocking to El Salvador mainly because of the country's use of Bitcoin as legal tender. There is still at least a million who are coming for other reasons if those numbers are correct.

Despite their adoption of Bitcoin, I wouldn't want to visit El Salvador. Gang violence, crime, drugs... those are all things that are more important to solve than paying my way with Bitcoin.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> Bukele should be jealous of how Spain is doing:

More than twice as many tourists visited Spain in June than in the same month last year and they spent almost three times as much during their stay, National Statistics Institute data showed on Tuesday

That’s because Spain has 257 bitcoin ATMs in the country, against the 212 in El Salvador. I mean if Bukele can attribute the tourism recovery to bitcoin in the country, I can do likewise, with the same (apparently baseless) set of information.

Much as they like to attribute the recovery to pre-pandemic figures to bitcoin related tourism, they really should back the assertion with some undeniable data pulled from somewhere other than where I think it came from. Sure some traction will have come from it, but say a 5% attribution or a 30% attribution would have completely different readings, and having a lack of data leaves us in the blue really.

[stadus]

Well, that was what they think but I don't think it was realistic rather than fake news.
I'd expect how El Salvador President to have this idea but thinking why we never hear people, Bitcoiners go there and spend their Bitcoins? People will go to that place without minding if Bitcoin is accepted or not, they go there because they want to spend good moment in El Salvador.

I'd say is was overly speculated - might say it is one of their attributes but there are so many reason why tourist come and visit , not because of Bitcoin alone.

[TheNineClub]

It's both right and wrong. It's right in a sense that it probably did attract crypto tourists because it sure ain't the prospect of a person getting kidnaped something that would attract people to come over there on their holiday. The wrong thing about it is that we can't be sure it's really that number, how many of those people are just crypto expats wanting to move there more permanently, and it's not really a sustainable model that would attract continuous tourists.

[Leviathan.007]

Since I didn't visit this country I cannot say a lot about other interesting options for tourists in El Salvador but from what I can see these days the governments of El Salvador are trying hard to attract people to El Salvador as a new home of bitcoiners and the people who like investing in bitcoin, however regardless of the options people can get from using bitcoin in El Salvador they governments should provide them more safely especially for the tourists, because this can be another way for El Salvador to get some income in the future.

[lepbagong]

just a coincidence maybe, actually el salvador has a lot of promising tourism not because of the bitcoin, because there is no sentence that claims bitcoin attracts tourists to el salvador, here the government should be more active in beautifying the existing tourism places so that the country's foreign exchange can improve without relying on reserves funds in bitcoin to meet the needs of his country

maybe bitcoin is just a complement for convenience for tourists who really want to go to elsavador and can use the convenience of being able to make transactions using bitcoin.
but I agree with my friend above that there are many tourists to Elsavador because the tourist attractions there are qualified and can be used as destinations for those who want to find entertainment. so elsavador should continue to beautify themselves and prepare well so that many tourists feel comfortable staying there to spend their money, so that the economy can improve. bitcoin is clearly only as a confidence enhancer for tourists who really want to use bitcoin payments.

[Vaskiy]

Nicki & James in El Salvador 🇸🇻 (@njelsalvador)
I used to follow this Twitter profile which belongs to a couple who have moved to El Salvador after the bitcoin adoption and they find it good. This makes me believe cryptocurrency has changed the business all around and this has attracted more people which is also a true statement. So, El Salvador claiming that it made good progress in the tourism sector out of Bitcoin adoption is true.

[TimeTeller]

Nicki & James in El Salvador 🇸🇻 (@njelsalvador)
I used to follow this Twitter profile which belongs to a couple who have moved to El Salvador after the bitcoin adoption and they find it good. This makes me believe cryptocurrency has changed the business all around and this has attracted more people which is also a true statement. So, El Salvador claiming that it made good progress in the tourism sector out of Bitcoin adoption is true.

We can put it this way, bitcoin being legal tender in El Salvador has good impact with their tourism industry.
It may not be the ultimate driving force for some tourists, but definitely, it gives reason to some tourists to check out this country.
So in any case, bitcoin has some influence with the progress of their tourism sector, which is actually good.
Great to see the positive impact of bitcoin in this country, it will be a good example for some countries to follow their path.

[virasisog]

Nicki & James in El Salvador 🇸🇻 (@njelsalvador)
I used to follow this Twitter profile which belongs to a couple who have moved to El Salvador after the bitcoin adoption and they find it good. This makes me believe cryptocurrency has changed the business all around and this has attracted more people which is also a true statement. So, El Salvador claiming that it made good progress in the tourism sector out of Bitcoin adoption is true.

We can't deny the fact that their country's adoption of Bitcoin can really attract lots of Bitcoin users. Investors especially those who prefer using Bitcoin in all types of transactions can move freely in the said country. El Salvador is known for its beautiful tourist's destinations yet Bitcoin also imparted something to increase their tourism. Their adoption is beneficial not just for their people but also to their economy. I hope more countries could see how Bitcoin adoption can make the economy better.

[danadc]

A friend was in El Salvador for work reasons, she tells me that most people do not know Bitcoin, they have a very vague idea, she was sharing with vaccination, sterilization and pet care sessions, she let me know that bitcoin if he is in most commercial establishments giving Bitcoin as a payment option, he told me that he could not go to the so-called Bitcoin City, but for the next one as a promise if he intends to do so.

[doomloop]

There might be a boom in the tourism sector of El Salvador because of bitcoin being legal tender over there as people from across the globe wants to test this up like paying at street foods and big restaurants with just one scan and use of LN walllets.Frankly saying then btc has helped El Salvador recovered in many ways and making progress in economy section also as you see tourism boost foreign reserves of the country.

I think they didn't expect that this can happen. It's amazing how they benefit in bitcoin, not only from making their lives more easier but also from this.

If only some countries know this earlier then I think they will also rush to be the first that will make btc a legal tender but it's not too late yet because there are countries that are too far from El Salvador and even if people are itchy to visit them and try this new trend, they will doubt and end up not doing it but if there are countries that does the same thing and are closer to them then they will surely go for that instead to lessen the travel cost but it would be better if their own country join this trend too.

[n0ne]

A friend was in El Salvador for work reasons, she tells me that most people do not know Bitcoin, they have a very vague idea, she was sharing with vaccination, sterilization and pet care sessions, she let me know that bitcoin if he is in most commercial establishments giving Bitcoin as a payment option, he told me that he could not go to the so-called Bitcoin City, but for the next one as a promise if he intends to do so.

The initiative taken is big, but the government lacks proper education about bitcoin. What needs to be done further is educating the people. In some articles I came across El Salvador people just making use of the Chivo Wallet to claim the free $30 worth bitcoin and are not using it further. Slowly we can expect progress, because it finds little difficult for the people to get adopted to the changing system.

[EdenHazard]

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.

I think that you misunderstood what @Accardo  wrote; that hotel owner didn't have 15 BTC worth of transactions, but overall 15 bitcoin transactions which is entirely different thing and far from impressive.


I know quite a few bitcoiners in real life who regularly go to exotic locations and I never heard any of them wanting to go to El Salvador just because bitcoin is a legal tender there and I gotta say that fact would be very low on my priority list when choosing for a next vacation location. So yeah, I don't think that bitcoin attracts many tourists there.

Well that's yours , people have different preference.

And for me traveling to a place where you can transact anything with bitcoin get me so curious to fly there and give it a shot on how bitcoin environment built there. It's a curiousity that makes people like me could splash the money to travel to el salvador to feel the experience by myself.

[yazher]

I don't know how tourists and bitcoins connected to each other because all I thought this time was the tourist only interested in nice places where there are lots of good views and people cultures. I think what they mean by it is the people who wanted to try how is the feeling on living in a country that completely accepts bitcoins as a payment. Some people are curious we can't deny that and that might the reason to drive them to that place.

[darewaller]

The problem is that going to El Salvador is not cheap, and that means there are people who are rich in crypto that could go to ES but that is only good for a while and for only a few people. I would love to visit there myself and he is right about the fact that just because they made it legal tender, many of us here would love to visit there at least once.

But, when we are talking about people who cannot afford going there, that makes it a bit harder. I do not have enough money to buy tickets to a flight to El Salvador round trip let alone actually stay there, which shows you that his intentions are true, but reality is more costly and we can't even think about it as of now. Like, if you are holding around one bitcoin and bitcoin prices will be getting into a another 20x to 50x then we could plan up for this most likely.

[Reatim]

just a coincidence maybe, actually el salvador has a lot of promising tourism not because of the bitcoin, because there is no sentence that claims bitcoin attracts tourists to el salvador, here the government should be more active in beautifying the existing tourism places so that the country's foreign exchange can improve without relying on reserves funds in bitcoin to meet the needs of his country

In their desperation they will do anything just to lure investors of crypto because admit it or not but their Bitcoin adoption is really not attracting their own people, still not majority of El Salvadorian is supporting this government move so maybe with all their target they will release multiple news for the benefits if bitcoin increasing usage in that region.

[Oneandpure]

I don't know how tourists and bitcoins connected to each other because all I thought this time was the tourist only interested in nice places where there are lots of good views and people cultures. I think what they mean by it is the people who wanted to try how is the feeling on living in a country that completely accepts bitcoins as a payment. Some people are curious we can't deny that and that might the reason to drive them to that place.

Absolutely not any connected between bitcoin adopter with tourists, some tourists what ever their job keep priority how best view and place on some country destination for travelling, they not really care about bitcoin as legal digital currency or not although he was an investor in bitcoin and cryptocurrency. I think what for bitcoin used as legal currency transaction but there not any special place become destination for travelling. I think priority first if want to get many tourism have unique and beautiful place but when using bitcoin as legal currency will give credit points to make tourism will be interested priority country have legal bitcoin.

[Rikafip]

And for me traveling to a place where you can transact anything with bitcoin get me so curious to fly there and give it a shot on how bitcoin environment built there. It's a curiousity that makes people like me could splash the money to travel to el salvador to feel the experience by myself.

Fair enough, but how many bitcoiners like you know, that are willing to travel to another country just to experience spending some bitcoin directly? From my experience, not many "bitcoiners" actually spend bitcoin even when they can and instead they chose to rather spend fiat so I doubt that El Salvador can attract many bitcoin-tourists that way.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't mind going to some country where I can spend bitcoin directly (as a matter of fact I did something relatively similar to that few times, going for a vacation to a foreign country and paying everything with crypto debit card only) but that location should offer me more stuff than just having bitcoin as a legal tender.

[Davidvictorson]

I believe the experience of using bitcoin for transactions is one of the reasons why El Salvador is seeing a spark in tourism. Besides some of the tourists may be there for other reasons other than tourism. Personally, I think crypto entrepreneurs who vacation there may also be looking to start a new market, interview the locals and just to get a feel of their experience with bitcoin usage.

[darkangel11]

It's true. When they say bitcoin made the country popular it did it in two ways:
1. Made it popular among bitcoiners who want to spend some of their money and last year the profits were piling up so people were more eager to spend.
2. Put it in the mainstream media which made many people believe it or not aware of the country's existence. I'll be honest here, I knew about El Salvador, but before they accepted bitcoin I wouldn't be able to accurately point it on the map. Now I can.