Guayaquil Tourism Spending Reached USD 140.3 Million in Q2

Tourists generated USD 140,251,276 in Guayaquil during the second quarter of 2026, according to a study contracted by the municipal government. The figure gives service providers and investors a current view of visitor spending, while the city is also positioning its international connectivity and business-events potential as growth channels.

The data comes from a survey of visitors and is more useful as a market signal than as a forecast. It identifies where visitors came from, how safe they felt, and the scale of spending recorded during the quarter.

The visitor mix

Visitors from Colombia represented 26.70% of the reported market. They were followed by Panama at 11.64%, the United States at 8.06%, Argentina at 7.43%, Peru at 6.42%, and Spain at 6.28%.

That mix matters for hotels, restaurants, retail, transport, and other visitor-facing services because it points to a market that is not dependent on a single origin country. It also suggests different opportunities for air connectivity, destination marketing, and repeat travel.

Safety and connectivity

The study found that 53.61% of visitors felt safe or very safe in Guayaquil. That is a majority, but it also leaves a large share of visitors outside the positive response category. Safety perception therefore remains part of the commercial proposition, not a background issue.

The city reported 158 direct international flights, another factor in its positioning as a gateway for both leisure and business travel. Direct access can lower friction for events and corporate travel, although the number of flights alone does not establish future demand or route profitability.

The MICE opportunity

The municipality is presenting Guayaquil as having potential in MICE activity: meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions. That segment matters because business events can spread visitor spending across accommodation, venues, catering, transport, and professional services rather than concentrating demand in a single leisure season.

The study does not provide a full MICE pipeline, event-capacity inventory, or return-on-investment estimate. The immediate signal is therefore strategic: Guayaquil has a measurable visitor-spending base and is identifying business events as an area for expansion.

What to watch

Watch whether the city publishes repeat quarterly measurements, separates leisure from business-event spending, and reports how international-flight connectivity converts into hotel nights and event bookings. For operators, the useful next data point is not another headline spending total but evidence of repeat demand and the conversion of MICE positioning into contracted events.

Source: El Universo