LocationsTití me preguntó: The culture of Latin America and the Caribbean as a driver of development
April 30, 2026
On February 9, 2026, more than 120 million people around the world watched a Super Bowl halftime show performed largely in Spanish, an ode to Caribbean and Latin American identity, rhythm, and language. For many observers, it marked a symbolic turning point: Latin American and Caribbean culture had become the mainstream.
From music charts and film awards to food trends and tourism flows, the global visibility of LAC has expanded sharply in recent years. But beyond headlines and social media posts lies a deeper development question: can this growing global fascination with the region’s culture be transformed into jobs, exports, tourism, innovation, and long-term development? This #GraphForThought explores the rising international attention towards LAC’s culture, and how this momentum can be translated into hard development gains.
Home to 8% of the world's population, around 10% of global heritage sites, 6 of the 17 megadiverse countries, and more than 300 indigenous languages, LAC’s diversity is one of its greatest assets. Its shared yet distinct histories have produced globally recognizable identities while sustaining enormous internal cultural variety.
Cuisine is one of the most visible channels through which countries expand their cultural influence, and convert culture into revenue, tourism demand, and export markets. Countries with strong culinary traditions often leverage food to attract visitors and promote agricultural exports. Google search trends show that interest in LAC cuisines, particularly Mexican and Peruvian, has grown steadily over the past 15 years, surpassing traditionally dominant cuisines (see Figure 1).
This growing demand is gaining traction in global food markets, with regional staples scaling internationally as wellness products. Quinoa, for example, is now grown in more than 120 countries, with Peru and Bolivia supplying 74% of global exports. Açai, native to the Amazon basin, has also seen rapid expansion, with production increasing by 70% between 2015 and 2024. Global rankings further reinforce this trend: since 2021, at least three LAC restaurants have appeared annually in the world’s top 10, signaling broader recognition of the region’s culinary identity.
Cultural visibility can often drive demand for language skills. Spanish, the predominant language in LAC, has maintained strong global demand, but now shows large spikes around major cultural moments (Figure 1). Search trends for learning Spanish surged in 2026 during the Super Bowl halftime show. This year also marked the first time a Spanish-language album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, signaling that regional artists are now competing at the highest levels of global recognition rather than within specific categories.
A potential outcome of this visibility is the strengthening of the creative economy. Cultural and creative industries span music, film, literature, architecture, fashion, gaming, and visual arts, among others, and represent a unique opportunity for boosting productivity and development. The region’s creative output is gaining global visibility: a Brazilian film won the 2025 Academy Award for Best International Feature, and between 2010 and 2025, nine LAC films were nominated in this category, compared to five in the previous decade.
Trade data suggest a similar upward trend (Figure 2). Exports of creative goods have increased in recent years, with considerable growth since 2021. Between 2021 and 2024, exports grew by an average of 2.6% per year, reaching an estimated value of US$ 10 billion in 2024. Despite this progress, creative goods from LAC account only for 1.45% of global exports and less than 1% of the region’s merchandise trade. By comparison, the European Union produces 26.5% of the world's creative goods, although their share in its total merchandise trade remains modest (2.82%).
These trends are not isolated. Together, they reflect a broader ecosystem in which cultural visibility, digital exposure and global consumption reinforce one another, and are increasingly translating into tourism demand (Figure 3).
In 2024, LAC accounted for 16.6% of international tourist arrivals, making it the second most visited region after Western Europe and ahead of other destinations in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. This is a considerable increase from 10.7% in 2010, with the post-pandemic period marking an inflection point in the region’s attractiveness. The large Latin American and Caribbean diaspora, which has doubled in the United States and sextupled in Europe since the 1990s, also contributes to the expanding global interest in and dissemination of the region’s heritage.
Countries are actively pushing branding strategies to capitalize on this momentum. Some focus on natural assets and biodiversity, such as Esencial Costa Rica, Marca Colombia, and Saint Lucia’s Let Her Inspire You. Others highlight culture and heritage, including Marca Perú, Marca México, and Visit Jamaica. And at the local level, initiatives such as Rio de Janeiro’s large-scale free megaconcerts show how event-led strategies can attract visitors and position destinations as global cultural hubs.
However, this growing interest in LAC does not automatically turn into development progress; realizing it depends on the region’s ability to activate and coordinate key enabling factors. Without adequate policies and institutions, cultural booms can generate uneven gains. Tourism may strain infrastructure, inflate rents, or displace local communities. Global digital platforms may capture most of the value generated by regional creators. Informal workers in music, crafts, gastronomy, or design often remain excluded from social protection. Cultural commercialization can also weaken or appropriate heritage if communities are not meaningfully included.
In short, cultural visibility is an opportunity for the region, but whether it translates into development will depend on policy choices.
That means linking global demand with local productive capacities and fostering ecosystems that can turn attention into value. Between 2010 and 2019, LAC showed only modest growth in industrial design, patent, and trademark applications, in contrast to the dynamism seen in Asia and Europe. This suggests the region’s cultural momentum is not yet systematically converted into economic assets, nor adequately protected as a source of value.
The region also needs greater sophistication and formalization of its creative industries. In LAC, the creative economy accounts for around 6.9% of total employment, above the global average (6.2%) and higher than in regions such as Eastern Europe or North America. However, when contrasted with the weak performance in intellectual property, a relevant disconnection emerges: the region employs relatively more people in creative activities but generates fewer assets from them.
Seizing this opportunity will require deliberate strategies for positioning, financing, and strengthening local creative industries. Without them, international attention may translate into external capture of cultural value or into dynamics that distort, rather than advance, development.
The world is listening to LAC’s music, dancing their rhythms, eating its food, watching its films, learning its languages, and visiting its cities. If the region can continue to build strong ecosystems around that demand, today’s cultural visibility could become tomorrow’s development engine.
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