Comment by paulgb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulgb | Hacker News Reader

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That article says:

> The report by the WTO states that some “Central American destinations have the best results compared to 2019,” including El Salvador at +81% compared with 2019, or pre-pandemic levels.

It's not clear in the source article where that figure comes from. When translated to English, the source article[1] says:

> In fact, several islands in the Caribbean, as well as Asia and the Pacific, along with some small European and Central American destinations have the best results compared to 2019: Seychelles (-27%), Bulgaria and Curaçao (both -20%), El Salvador (-19%), Serbia and Maldives (both -13%), Dominican Republic (-11%), Albania (-7% ) and Andorra (-3%). Bosnia and Herzegovina (+2%) even exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Based on the quotation, it seems like that's the paragraph being referenced, but the figures don't match at all.

[1] https://www.unwto.org/es/news/turismo-inicia-2022-fuerte-per...

The +81% corresponds to the -19%. You just need to ignore the “+”. What they seem to be saying is that, while only at 81% of pre-pandemic levels, El Salvador is part of the group of countries having the best (least worst) deltas to 2019.

That would explain where the number comes from, but it's an incorrect and very misleading way of presenting the data, hence GP (reasonably but incorrectly) interpreting it as meaning that tourism is up from pre-pandemic levels.

You're right that this would be accurate if you ignore the "+", but they made the decision to include it, which gives the data a completely different meaning.

> but it's an incorrect and very misleading way of presenting the data.

As a Salvadorean I can tell you that is pretty much the way the goverment propaganda machine works... Misleading, inaccurate data or straight up lies. On this particular case the reality is that levels of tourism are back to 81% of its pre-pandemic levels, which is good on its own right, but wasn't good enough for the goverment agenda... so they starting pushing the "tourism is up 81%" thing and slapped bitcoin (which as little to nothing to do with that) on top. if you dig deep enough even the own goverment clarifies that they are talking about recovery and not growth on some publications underneath the propaganda [1]

[1] https://www.presidencia.gob.sv/el-salvador-es-el-segundo-pai...

Of course; I was just helping the GP to understand what the article is trying to (mis)represent.

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