All You Need is Ecuador

Ecuador Tourism

All you need is Ecuador is the name of the advertising campaign backed by the Ministry of Tourism in Ecuador. Tourism is the third largest industry in Ecuador and employs tens of thousands of people.

During the last Super Bowl in the states a thirty second commercial about Ecuador was aired in the twelve largest media markets there, titled “All you need is Ecuador”. It wasn’t aired during the game itself but during half time which is even more expensive. It cost Ecuador about $3.8M to air the commercial and about $20K to produce it.

No country had ever done that before and Ecuador got quite a bit of publicity out of it beyond just airing the commercial itself. The feeling was that if the commercial could increase the number of north American visitors by at least 1% the money would be well spent. By all accounts so far it’s done that and then some. This was a pretty big deal in Ecuador for those of us that live here and it was talked about for months.

Our number one visitor destination is the Galapagos followed by Quito, and Cuenca where I live comes in at third. As the commercial points out though we really do have it all. From the Galapagos to the Andes to the Pacific Ocean and the Amazon.

Our whale watching season just started which runs until September and is a big attraction at locations like Puerto Lopez and others along the coast. World class surfing can be found at Montanita which is a non stop party town also.  Salinas is also on the coast and enjoys a warm climate but with very little humidity and is a very popular destination.

Of course we have the Galapagos, the Andes and the Amazon also.

We have two international airports to welcome our visitors who are flying here in Quito and Guayaquil as well as other airports both on the mainland and the Galapagos. We have an inter provincial bus system that can take you anywhere you want to go on the mainland after you get here. Our currency is the U.S. dollar.

Come on down and see what the fuss is all about as they say in Texas.

Here’s the “All you need is Ecuador” commercial that aired during the last Super Bowl.

Hat Tip: Many thanks to ExpatFocus which last week named this blog one of the Top 5 Expat Blogs in Ecuador.