Latin America at a crossroads: without better infrastructure, there can be no tourism or economic take-off
At the FII PRIORITY Miami 2026 summit, held from March 25 to 27 at the Faena hotel in Miami Beach, the Chairman of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Manfredi Lefebvre, warned that the future of Latin America will not be decided only by the amount of available capital, but by the ability of countries and partners to actually implement projects. The focus of the discussion was not whether the region has potential, but whether it can turn that potential into real growth. The message that echoed from Miami to governments, investors, and development banks was clear: without transport, aviation, digital, and urban infrastructure, there can be no more serious investment, no stronger tourism, and no longer-term competitiveness.
On the panel dedicated to the conditions for long-term investment in Latin America, according to the summit report, Lefebvre described infrastructure investment as a
“growth multiplier”. In this case, that wording is not merely a convenient political-business phrase. In a region that simultaneously has enormous natural resources, large cities, a growing service sector, and tourism potential, the quality of roads, airports, ports, railways, utility systems, and digital networks determines how quickly goods, people, capital, and ideas can move at all. And the movement of capital was precisely the central theme of this year’s summit in Miami.
Miami as a stage for a new debate on Latin America’s “new order”
This year, the FII Institute organized the meeting in Miami under the theme
“Capital in Motion”, and the official programme shows that Latin America occupied a particularly important place in the schedule. The very first day of the summit was dedicated to the so-called “new Latin American order”, that is, the question of how the region can seize a new investment cycle at a time when global value chains are being reshaped, when countries are seeking safer sources of energy and raw materials, and when the regionalization of production is being discussed ever more strongly.
In the official summit materials, Latin America and the Caribbean are described as a space of strategic transition, a place where infrastructure will determine whether the region can take advantage of integration into regional and global value chains, urban growth, and demographic changes. This is an important nuance. It is not only that infrastructure is desirable, but that it is becoming a decisive precondition for keeping pace with new economic circumstances. In other words, the region is no longer seen only as a source of raw materials and tourist postcards, but as a space where new energy, logistics, and industrial corridors could be built. Without feasible projects, however, such a scenario remains at the level of investment presentations.
The problem is not only money, but implementation
The most striking part of Lefebvre’s message relates precisely to the gap between capital and implementation. For years, Latin America has not been “invisible” on the map of global investors. The region attracts interest because of lithium, copper, agriculture, renewable energy sources, proximity to the US market, increasingly developed financial and technological centres, and, of course, tourism. But many projects get stuck between political cycles, slow permits, regulatory unpredictability, insufficient coordination among levels of government, and weaknesses in public administration.
That is precisely why the discussion in Miami was important even beyond the tourism sector. When the Chairman of the WTTC warns about inadequate infrastructure, he is not speaking only about passenger comfort or the length of the line at passport control. He is speaking about the economy in the broadest sense: whether a container can arrive on time, whether an aircraft can open a new route, whether a destination can safely handle a larger number of visitors, whether digital platforms and logistics systems can keep up with demand, and whether cities can withstand a larger inflow of people without a collapse in quality of life.
The figures show how large the gap is
Among the most important data that official documents and development institutions had already put on the table earlier is the estimate by the Inter-American Development Bank that Latin America and the Caribbean must invest at least
3.12 percent of regional GDP annually by 2030 in order to expand and maintain the infrastructure needed to move closer to the Sustainable Development Goals. In the transport sector alone, according to that analysis, closing gaps in road, aviation, and public transport infrastructure requires investment of
1.37 percent of GDP annually. The official programme of the Miami summit summed up that need in an even more politically direct formula: the region must invest approximately
3 to 5 percent of GDP annually if it wants to close the infrastructure gap and maintain long-term competitiveness.
Such figures explain why infrastructure is no longer viewed today as a secondary technical sector, but as the foundation of development policy. If investment is not accelerated, the cost is not measured only in kilometres of unbuilt roads or delays in airport modernization. It is also measured in weaker growth, lower productivity, more expensive business operations, slower regional integration, and lower resilience to climate shocks. That is why similar gatherings increasingly speak of infrastructure as a “platform” for growth, and not only as a “construction site”.
Why tourism is at the centre of the debate
Lefebvre’s emphasis on tourism is not accidental. In recent days, the WTTC and the IDB have further emphasized how important the sector is for the Latin American economy. According to the latest WTTC economic impact research, travel and tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean contributed
US$714 billion to the region’s economy in 2024, accounting for about
10 percent of total GDP, with more than
28 million jobs. International visitor spending reached
US$144.4 billion. Projections to 2035 further raise expectations: the WTTC estimates that the sector could generate
US$944.8 billion and support more than
35.4 million jobs, which is about
US$206 billion in additional value and approximately
six million new jobs compared with 2025.
But those figures also have another side. If tourism demand and investment interest are indeed rising, then infrastructure weaknesses become even more visible. Airport capacity, road connectivity with tourist zones, urban transport, water supply, drainage, supply chain security, broadband internet, and resilience to extreme weather conditions become the bottleneck of the entire growth model. Tourism is therefore often a kind of litmus test in the debate: where infrastructure functions, growth spills over more quickly into hospitality, trade, transport, creative industries, and local services; where it does not function, great potential remains partially unused.
Latin America between opportunity and bottleneck
The World Bank estimates that the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by
2.5 percent in 2026, after
2.3 percent in 2025, which shows that the region is growing, but also that this growth remains relatively modest for an area that wants to capture a larger investment wave. That is precisely why infrastructure issues are becoming more politically urgent. When growth is low or moderate, the pressure on governments to raise productivity, open new markets, and attract long-term capital becomes greater. Infrastructure then ceases to be a matter of prestige and becomes a necessity.
That is why people in Miami spoke of “enabling conditions” for long-term investment. That expression covers much more than money alone: legal certainty, contract stability, a predictable tax framework, the state’s ability to prepare projects, local expertise, quality regulation, and public-private partnership models that do not end in political conflicts or court disputes. Put simply, investors care less about rhetoric about potential and more about whether a project can be completed on time, within budget, and according to rules that will not change in the middle of construction.
Public-private partnerships without illusions
One of the key messages from similar gatherings in recent years is that public budgets alone cannot close the infrastructure gap. That is why public-private partnerships are regularly highlighted as the solution. But Latin America’s experience shows that PPP models are not a magic wand either. If institutions are weak, project documentation poor, the regulatory framework unstable, or political changes too frequent, private capital will either demand a higher risk price or go elsewhere.
Lefebvre’s warning can therefore also be read as a message that the region must offer more than grand promises. Projects with clear economic logic, realistic deadlines, quality preparation, and credible oversight are needed. This applies especially to tourism infrastructure, where far too much has often been said about luxury resorts and record seasons, and far too little about sewerage networks, traffic flow, local airports, water supply, and energy capacities that are necessary for a destination to withstand development at all.
Tourism as a development sector, not just the export of experiences
An important shift in the tone of the debate can also be seen in the way the WTTC and the IDB have presented tourism in recent months. The sector is not described only through the number of arrivals and overnight stays, but as a generator of a broader value chain: gastronomy, logistics, creative industries, technology, financial services, and employment. This matters for a region where tourism often opens the door to investment even in parts of the economy that at first glance are not tourist-related. A new air connection does not benefit only hotels, but also exporters, entrepreneurs, students, health services, and trade. Faster internet does not serve only digital nomads, but also local companies. A better port helps not only cruise ships, but also freight traffic.
That is precisely why the tourism argument in Miami fits into the broader development picture. If tourism is one of the fastest ways to activate the local economy and create jobs, then infrastructure bottlenecks are also an obstacle to social development. Such logic is especially relevant for small and medium-sized cities and coastal and island destinations, where seasonal demand often collides with the limited capacities of utility and transport systems.
Execution as a political test
Ultimately, Lefebvre’s intervention in Miami can be read as a warning to both business circles and governments. Latin America is not without capital, without interest, and without development narratives. But the region has been facing for too long the fact that ambitious plans do not produce a sufficiently fast and even result on the ground. That is why the question of execution has become almost more important than the plan itself. Whoever can prepare projects, speed up permits, secure the rules of the game, and maintain continuity through political cycles will attract more investment and derive greater benefit from the global reshuffling of capital.
For tourism, that message is even sharper. Demand exists, growth projections exist, investor interest exists. But without airports that can handle more traffic, roads that do not choke destinations, utility systems that can bear seasonal pressure, and digital networks that follow modern travel, part of future growth will remain lost. That is why the debate from Miami cannot be reduced to yet another conference message about potential. It is, at least according to what the official summit documents and the estimates of leading institutions have shown, a warning that the next decade in Latin America will depend less on who has more capital, and more on who knows how to turn capital into roads, runways, ports, networks, and functional cities.
Sources:- FII Institute – official page of the FII PRIORITY Miami 2026 summit with dates, location, and the theme of the event (link)
- FII Institute – official summit programme with a panel on long-term investment in Latin America and infrastructure conditions (link)
- WTTC – announcement of the appointment of Manfredi Lefebvre to lead the organization and his role in the global tourism sector (link)
- WTTC – regional estimates of tourism impact and growth projections for Latin America and the Caribbean until 2035 (link)
- IDB – announcement of cooperation with the WTTC and data on tourism’s contribution to regional GDP and employment (link)
- IDB – study on the infrastructure gap in Latin America and the Caribbean and the investments needed by 2030 (link)
- World Bank – current macroeconomic overview of Latin America and the Caribbean with growth estimates for 2025 and 2026 (link)
- eTurboNews – report from the Miami summit conveying Lefebvre’s warning about infrastructure as a “growth multiplier” (link)
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