Tourism slogans are meant to sum up the appeal of destinations in just a few words, the same way a brand’s tag line does. Ideally, they are short enough to go on a hat or water   bottle, but powerful enough to convey a strong emotional connection or make a pitch for why you should visit. Sometimes these destinations spend the kind of money a big brand would in order to settle on a slogan, bringing in an agency and going through tests and focus groups. All for just a few words that, as often as not, are either perplexing or just wrong.

tourism slogans Latin America

Latin America has a long history with bad tourism slogans, stemming in part from sentiments that don’t always translate well. What may sound melodious and attractive in Spanish may sound weird or off-putting in English.

The best example of this was Panama’s from the late ’00s: “Panama – it will never leave you.” The English travel press had a heyday when that was announced, with one headline saying, “Panama Picks A Tourism Slogan Reminiscent Of Childhood Trauma, STDs.” People joked that maybe it referred to a case of dengue fever or food poisoning that stuck around after you had gone home.

Thankfully, that slogan did leave us. So did the one “It’s all here in Honduras.” After the country recorded the highest murder rate in the world soon after, people started wondering what that “all” actually was.

This is not a problem unique to Latin America, of course. The tourism slogan for Morocco has been “Much Mor,” for Algeria “Tourism for Everyone,” and for Ukraine, “It’s all about U.” Apparently many destinations think they have a lock on beauty. There’s “Beautiful Bangladesh,” “It’s Beautiful – It’s Pakistan,” and “Beauty has an address” in Oman. Hey, you should “Visit Armenia – it is beautiful.”

Sometimes these tourism slogans are front and center on all the country’s printed materials, promo swag, and the website. Other times they’re buried in some government report and seldom seen again. From what we could find though (with the last update in August of 2023), here are the current ones, from north to south on the map. Which is your favorite?

Mexico – A World of Its Own 
We are never 100% sure what the current tourism slogan for Mexico is because the president dissolved the tourism bureau soon after he took office and the website has been a mess ever since. The slogan could just be, “We put our whole tourism budget into the Maya Train project,” but that’s not very catchy.

With the country not attending any trade shows for years, we’re not sure what goes on the booth signs these days, but from what we can find, “Mexico – A World of Its Own” has replaced the previous one, “Think of Mexico.” Prior to that, it was “Mexico – Live it to believe it” for years.

This current one works better than the two previous one. People already “think of Mexico” a lot but they don’t always think positive thoughts. On the other hand, the country has a huge variety of landscapes, climates, cultures, music, food, and handicrafts and this slogan reflects that well.

Central American Tourism Slogans

Guatemala – Heart of the Mayan World
Although there’s more to Guatemala than Tikal, this is a great slogan for a lot of reasons and that’s probably why they’ve stuck with it for so long. It’s been in place since before we started this publication in 2007, so no annual brochure reprinting required.

heart of the Mayan world travel slogan

Belize – A Curious Place
Belize has been through a fair number of slogans, from the cringe-worthy “Belize it!” to the cryptic “Discover how to be” to “Mother Nature’s best-kept secret.” I guess they had to drop that last one when the cruise ships started spilling thousands of people onto the port dock.

This one doesn’t really say much, but perhaps that’s the goal. Something more concrete that highlighted the surf and turf aspect of Caribbean waters plus jungle/ruins would help sell the place more, but that’s the problem with slogans: they’re usually too short for that. This one, coupled with all the nice images on their website, does at least make you curious about what you could discover there.

Honduras – More Than a Destination
The last time I was in contact with the U.S. office of Honduras, the guy had an AOL e-mail address and the last time I got a press release from them was a decade ago, so tourism marketing and publicity are clearly not high on the priority list. Back when they were using a PR firm I got slapped on the wrist for mentioning the tourism slogan that was on my baseball hat from a previous trip in my article: ‘One small country, three big worlds.’ That was a great slogan because it nicely summed up the answer to the inevitable question, ‘Why go there?’ You go because you’ve got one of the most notable Mayan ruins sites, nature preserves, and the coral-fringed islands. So the slogan actually meant something.

Alas, I had to edit the article because the PR agency had spent tons of money on focus groups and reports to come up with a brand new slogan: ‘The Central America you know – the country you’ll love.’ What does that even mean? About as much as “more than a destination.” Couldn’t this apply to virtually anywhere? It’ll change again soon though I’m sure. Past ones have included such gems as “You can’t leave Honduras without really knowing Honduras” and “Everything is here.” (Everything? Really?!)

El Salvador – The 45-minute country
I’m quite intrigued by this one and am not really sure what it means. I’m guessing the intent is to say you can get from one side of the country to the other in 45 minutes, that it won’t take you long to tour around, but is that a good thing? What I think of instead when I see that is “There’s only enough here to occupy you for 45 minutes, then you can leave.”

I’ve never been to El Salvador and I can’t say that slogan moves the place higher up on my priority list for the future.

Nicaragua Unica… Original!
Nicaragua has stuck with some version of this slogan for at least eight years now, though I’m not really sure how effective it is. It’s hard to point to much in Nicaragua that you can’t find in at least one neighboring country. Nice beaches, check. Historic colonial city, check. Steaming volcano, check. Cigars and rum, check. They’ve got conical volcanic mountains sticking out of a massive lake though, so there’s that at least.

The description just below the slogan on their website lays it out better with more wording to work with. “In the heart of Central America, Nicaragua truly deserves the descriptive nickname of ‘The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes.’ Visitors to Nicaragua are able to enjoy the natural beauty of dozens of volcanoes, rivers, and lakes, as well as two oceans.”

Essential Costa Rica
This one has been in place for quite a few years, so they must like it. The slogan seems generic and non-descriptive to me: you could slap “essential” in front of any country name since it doesn’t bring up any visual connotation. But it is usually paired with visuals like volcanoes, rainforest, adventures, or beaches.

It’s probably not a bad strategy to let the images and video do the talking for Costa Rica instead of the words. Their brand image has made it one of the most popular places for expat real estate investments in all of Latin America.

I miss their old one though that seemed perfect: “Costa Rica – no artificial ingredients.”

See our reviews of the best Costa Rica luxury hotels.

Panama – Live for More
This is certainly better than “It’ll never leave you,” though I kind of liked one of their previous ones better: “Panama Surprises.” Others have referenced nature, though that’s kind of problematic and wishful thinking. While there are some great adventure activities and nature exploration options in Panama, the country is better known for its capital city and the canal.

Perhaps “Live for More” is so generic that you can toss any destination under that banner and it still works, metropolis or rainforest.  You can live for more anywhere really though, so I’m not sure how this helps Panama’s image or makes more people want to go there.

South America Tourism Slogans

Colombia – Feel the Rhythm
Colombia seems to cycle through tourism slogans faster than any country in the Americas, but most of them never make it onto the official tourism website. You see the tag lines more at trade shows and events they’re hosting, as I did with “Colombia es passion / Colombia is passion” when I was last there in 2022 for an industry conference.

Now the current one seems to be “Most Welcoming Place on Earth.” That’s their most generic slogan to date, one that 30 or 40 other countries could credibly claim, so hopefully it disappears like a hot arepa and gets replaced soon by something catchier.

Colombia once had one of the most famous tourism slogans in the world, the daring “The only risk is wanting to stay.” Back when their main goal was to battle the perception that it was a dangerous land of cocaine cartels, this slogan was highly effective and some would argue that it turned around their reputation with travelers. Now they seem to be rotating through tourism slogans that highlight one particular aspect of the country. For several years they went with “Colombia is Magic Realism,” a nod to the strange worlds of Latin America’s well-known writer: Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

A few years back, the Colombia tourism slogan was “Feel the Rhythm.” That seemed to be a reference to the music and the exuberant people who play it, which is also a nod to the person who might be the most famous living Colombian: Shakira. The land of cumbia does have more great music than most countries though, even compared to others in Latin America, so it worked. But they soon switched to a new tune and then another.

Colombia tourism slogan

See more on Colombia luxury travel.

Guayana – South America Undiscovered
I like this one a lot because it plays off the fact that they’re not a mass-market tourism destination and the country is full of wild places. I haven’t been there. Have you? It’s still undiscovered.

Time to Reset in Ecuador
Well hey, it’s better than the previous one: “All You Need is Ecuador.” That was another one that’s so generic you could slap nearly any destination on the end. Or “love” for that matter and you’ve got a Beatles song.

The reset idea is a little different, but without visuals it falls flat. There’s no hint of what awaits you if you visit–in a country that has Andean peaks, Amazon basin jungle, cloudforests, and the Galapagos Islands.

They went a little overboard with the idea on the official site though. When I visited Ecuador.travel in August of 2023, there was just “Time to reset in Ecuador” on the page and…nothing else to click on or navigate. I went to their press page through a back door and it said, “Welcome to our blog! Read our latest posts.” And the rest of the page was empty. The navigation links at the bottom were just text, with no actual links, and there were no press materials or contacts.

Hey Ecuador, “All You Need Is…” a tech staff.

Peru – The Richest Country in the World
We’re not completely sure that this is still the official tourism slogan of Peru because it only seems to appear at trade shows, not on their websites or in press releases. They are normally sloganless in those places, just using their attractive logo.

It is a nice play on the definition of “rich,” a nod to the fact that the countries with the wealthiest citizens aren’t necessarily the most “rich” in terms of beauty or attractions. It also makes you think of Inca gold and the cultural attractions from those ancestral people. You come here for a “trail of riches” and you leave rich in experiences.

The long-running one previously was “Peru – land of the Incas.” You still see it pop up here and there. That was all well and good, but it left out Lima’s gastronomy, the Amazon jungle, the alpine mountaineering, the Nazca Lines, and most of the reasons you visit the north. See our reviews of the best Peru luxury hotels scattered all over the country.

trekking in Peru

Brazil – Visit and Love Us
Another generic travel slogan that could apply to just about anywhere that’s an attractive destination, the opposite of “You’ll have a lousy time here.” The former one wasn’t much better: “Brazil, sensational!”

With a wacky science-denying, rainforest-destroying president at the helm formerly as the coronavirus was running rampant, Brazil’s tourism industry took a big hit that it’s not likely to recover from soon. The new president is an improvement overall, but he is re-instituting the reciprocal visa fee that went away years ago. This is basically a signal to Americans and Canadians that they should go somewhere else on vacation instead, especially if they’re a family that has to pay $160 per person.

Since not many people are lining up to visit – and love them – maybe a better slogan for a country were service isn’t known to be great anyway would be “Our neighbors want you more than we do.”

Paraguay – You Have to Feel It!
Do I really? Does anyone? This doesn’t tell me anything about what’s attractive and worth visiting in a land-locked country that most people would have trouble pointing out on a map.

Uruguay Natural
This is an odd choice on a whole lot of levels, especially since probably 95% of the visitors to Uruguay go to one of three places: ferry terminus Colonia, beach resort area Punta del Este, or the urban capital of Montevideo. Most of what’s “natural” in Uruguay would be cattle ranches and vineyards, not “natural” forests or jungles.

I’m guessing this was chosen more for the agricultural export industry than tourism and it just got slapped on everything. If they really wanted to see a spike in tourism, “We’ve got legal weed and gay marriage” would probably have more of an impact.

Argentina – Beats to Your Rhythm
Like Colombia’s “Feel the Rhythm,” we get a musical reference as a tourism slogan, appealing to our ears instead of our eyes. Argentina does have tango music, so it kind of makes sense, but that’s mainly a Buenos Aires thing. I don’t think of any rhythm when I picture Iguazu Falls, Salta, Mendoza, or Patagonia. As best I can tell, they’ve been using this one for at least eight years though, so don’t fix what’s not broken I guess.

Chile tourism slogan impossible possible

Dream of Chile – Where the Impossible Is Possible
The longest-running tourism slogan on this list is bold and confident, a reference to all the epic adventure activities that await from the Atacama Desert down to the bottom of Patagonia. Most countries would say it’s impossible to increase the amount of a country’s public parkland in the 2000s or to connect every one of those parks with hiking trails in such a large country, but they’ve managed both. They made it possible.

This is a far better slogan than their previous one: “All are welcome.” Here at the bottom of the world, let’s go with bold instead of a lame doormat slogan.

See more on Chile luxury travel.

What do you think? Which of these travel slogans makes you want to visit?