Tourism rebounds.

Nearly a decade after the end of a 36-year civil war that left 200,000 people dead, Guatemala is starting to shed its bloodstained reputation and earn new fame as a top tourist destination, reports CNN.com (Oct. 26, 2005):

Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola opened an exclusive jungle

Few places in the hemisphere offer so much variety--ancient ruins, jungle rain forests, whitewater rapids, 33 volcanos, beaches, colonial hideaways and the modern-day cultural influence of 22 Mayan cultures. A 2 1/2-hour flight from Miami, Guatemala is roughly the size of Ohio. "The natural beauty and cultural beauty you see where 'Survivor' was filmed is available all over the country," said Daniel Mooney, director of INGUAT, the country's tourism agency. "Guatemala really is as good as it looks on TV";

Just under 1.2 million foreigners visited in 2004, nearly 300,000 of those Americans, and officials hope to surpass 1.4 million this year. Those tallies have yet to catch Costa Rica, an ecotourism mecca that has for decades been considered the safest place in Central America. That country's tourism institute reported 1.7 million foreign visitors in 2004. Still, Guatemala has come a long way since 1996, the last year of the war, when only about 520,000 foreigners visited. During the dark days of government-led anti-insurgency campaigns in 1984, fewer than 200,000 dared make the trip.