Franchising in Central America and the Caribbean: big success for small countries

Abstract

The Latin American market is of great interest for international business and franchising, both for foreign investors and for national companies that do business abroad. The region under consideration is a kind of kaleidoscope of countries that vary greatly in level of economic development, size of territory and peculiarities of doing business. The article takes as a basis specific countries of the region — the smallest states of the Caribbean and Central America - in order to emphasize the fact that franchising business is widespread not only in developed and promising developing countries, but also in tropical island “oases”. A significant portion of all franchise concepts in Central America and the Caribbean are American. The main area of development of this business in the region is the service sector, especially fast food enterprises and hotels.