Lata to put UK market at heart of its new responsible tourism vision

Lata’s vision centres around good-quality travel with a positive impact, Johnson says, and aims to foster a collaborative approach across the membership to showcase best practice.

He explains how Lata’s vision is split across three pillars. "There is the education element," he says. "Lata, as a thought leader, has the opportunity to inspire or educate those that want to learn.

"The second stage is collaboration. We’ve already got some great members who are way ahead in their journeys, and where you’ve got shining examples you use that to educate and collaborate with countries who have potentially got some room for improvement.

"And then there’s the promotion for new people coming into the membership or into selling Latin America.”

The vision brings with it a reinvigorated focus on the UK market, where Johnson says Latin America is not widely sold, but where significant opportunities exist for UK businesses to “join in selling Latin America”.

“Latin American tourist boards have got an opportunity to do more in the UK market," Johnson continues. "We are definitely seeing more activity from some countries, such as Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, and those are great examples of where other tourist boards can get more benefit out of the UK market.”

Johnson is positive about Latin America’s natural potential for experiential travel, adding indicators from a recent member survey, which currently shows 40% of members reporting higher sales than expected, highlight “demand is definitely there”.

No longer ‘a numbers game’

He adds a benefit of selling Latin America to travellers is longevity. “People do return to Latin America," says Johnson.

"Historically, people tried to do all the highlights of the continent and never go back but that’s not the case now. It’s not positive, it’s not fun – you’re just travelling through different airports – and I think most tour operators in the Lata membership have moved away from that.

“When you sell Latin America, you’ve got opportunities for three, four, five visits. Thats where up-and-coming countries can pick up and where that holistic effect does roll out to less well-known destinations.

“It’s in-depth exploration of multiple locations in a country and Latin America lends itself to that. That travel around has to be managed in a positive way, but then people are going to lots of different parts of that country and therefore that wealth is spreading around the country.”