More than two million tourists expected for Easter Week in Honduras

Alvaro Morales Molina
Honduras This Week

Honduran Minister of Tourism, Ricardo Martinez, announced early this week the initiation of a new operation coordinated by the Secretary of Tourism in anticipation of some two million visitors, both foreign and domestic, who will descend upon tourist spots during Easter Week (March 16th - 23rd). The big draw: Caribbean and Pacific coast beach destinations.

Martinez explained to HTW that an aggressive advertising campaign is underway to lure visitors to the country’s many beaches, an effort that could see upwards to 3 billion lempira in tourist revenue.

“Destinations of Summer,” as Martinez and his staff named the campaign, began last week and will target both foreign and domestic tourists alike, hoping they spend their Easter Week vacations in Honduras.

According to previous estimations and projections, some 70,000 foreign tourists, the majority from other Central American countries, will be added to the 1.9 million Hondurans who will travel within the country. Most of that tourism money will be generated on the Bay Islands, the North Coast and the Pacific Coast, including the Gulf of Fonseca.

“Destinies of Summer” will be implemented as an operation to not only promote tourism in Honduras, but to gather tourism statistics and to increase the quality of visitors’ vacation experience during Easter Week.

During the first stage of the operation, personnel from both the Tourism Ministry and Tourism Police will greet visitors at customs points located in El Poy, Ocotepeque, El Florido, Copan and Corinto in Gracias.

After the welcome greeting, they will distribute informative material with maps and routes to the different destinations, including distances and approximate driving times and will even provide trash bags, all in an effort to make Easter Week vacations in Honduras more enjoyable.

At the same time, other tourism officials will move to the sectors most visited, including North Coast destinations such as Tela, La Ceiba, Trujillo, and the Bay Islands and South Coast destinations like Cedeño, Punta Ratòn and Amapala, where they plan to provide seventy portable toilets for public use to avoid contamination of the sea. Daily beach cleaning and tourist security will be supervised and Tourism Police will provide both tourist security and information.

With these actions, Martinez expects that holiday time spent in Honduras, which represents vital income for the country, will be nothing but pleasant and safe one and that will make a favorable impression of Honduras. Tourism is now the third most important source of revenue in Honduras.

New Board of Directors Elected for Canaturh Bay Islands 2008

Julio Galindo was voted in as the new president of Canaturh Bay Islands on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at Casa Romeo’s Restaurant in French Harbour.

After four successful years as President of Canaturh B-I, Romeo Silvestri was requested to stay on and was voted in to do so as Vice-President of the organization, working directly with Julio Galindo.

Other members of the new Board of Directors include: Secretary - Marco Galindo, Jr., Pro-Secretary – Camilla O’Brien, Treasurer – Gary Chamer, Fiscal – Kyle Mc Nab

The Board also included Vocals: John Edwards, John Kennedy, Delsia Rosales, Bruce Starr, Ana Svoboda, Samir Galindo, Christofer Cachat, and Italo Tugliani.

Tourism is by far the most important industry of the Bay Islands and Canaturh is the Tourism Chamber of Commerce. Honduras has seen a 10% growth in 2007, mainly as a result of the expansion of Roatan’s efforts to be acknowledged as one of the newest and most desired cruise ship ports in the Caribbean. Tourism growth has resulted in more than 32,000 additional direct and 40,000 indirect jobs for Hondurans.

More and more international airlines now fly non-stop to Roatan from places like Newark, N.J. (Continental) and the metropolitan New York City area. A second Continental mid-week flight has just been added from Houston in addition to their weekend flight. Delta flies non-stop from Atlanta and Taca flies non-stop from Miami.

The Mission of the Chamber is to pursue representatives of the private tourism sector and to coordinate those efforts with local and federal authorities to deliver a rich product to tourists around the world. This will generate more employment for all islanders and create a more prosperous and favorable image of Honduras.

Roatan and the Bay Islands will soon be a world-class tourist destination. Canaturh plays an important role in that plan through real actions; their efforts can be measured by tangible results. With the addition of Zolitur, (The Free Trade Zone Agreement) the region having this tool will bring pros­perity and awareness to tourism, and the Bay Islands will now be able to successfully compete with other islands in the Caribbean.

Former President Romeo Silvestri recommends that the new Canaturh Board create new, deeper strategic alliances at international levels with other chambers in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy and other countries. He suggests that we learn from successful programs already creating prosperity in places like the Cayman Islands.

He also suggests that we continue to build diplomatic associations with the U.S., England, Italy, Spain, France, Japan and Taiwan to build new programs that will help our economic development by instituting avenues towards educating our people, and locate financing for projects that will help our munici­palities improve the quality of life for all people.

Bruce Starr is the host of The Roatan Bruce Show heard on 106.5 FM weekdays from 9 am to 1 pm. Please visit his website at roatanbruce.com or contact him at roatanbruce@yahoo.com with your comments and suggestions.

COLONIA USURPADORES
(Also known as SQUATTERS)

We can think of nothing more detrimental to foreign investment than the government allowing people to ‘claim jump’ and build their shacks on absentee owners’ land, unless it is the newest twisted scam going on right now. It is a low blow to the poverty-level working class Honduran trying to establish a home on Roatan.

H.T.W. has been advised there is a well-known local who searches for an absentee owner’s property, and sets up a complex scheme to sell small plots of his land to the impoverished. He takes a few thou­sand Lempiras as a down payment, shows legal looking papers, introduces the people to his” attorney” and sets up payment plans. This man is what they call a white-collar ‘ladron’ or ‘enganador’ or in simple English, a cheap scam artist.

With this kind of dog and pony show, the poor people feel they are finally able to buy a piece of Roatan for themselves. They then set about sending for family members living on the mainland and start bringing over furniture, taking kids out of school and gathering scraps to build some temporary shelter. They work day and night to fence off their land so no one else can move in on them. They plant shrubs and flowers and do their best to set up a real home.

Now in comes the so-called “bad guys:” the real owner, his attorney, the D.G.I.C. squad, the Fisqali, the prosecutors, the police with guns, and this time, the press. Hearts will be broken, but hope­fully no skulls. Animosity will grow, driving a bigger wedge between the underprivileged working class and the foreign investors who are doing nothing wrong except trying to protect what they paid for: their land.

And who is to blame? The creep with a history of taking advantage of locals and foreigners alike - that’s who. No one is safe from his scurrilous tactics. How can such an individual continue to operate, you ask? So do we, and this time we will follow the case from start to finish to be certain it is not buried in a pile of red tape and mass confusion. This must stop immediately.

AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

Now, if you are against development, read no further. This country and especially this island are committed to progress and development. As we have said before, if you are looking for a deserted tropical island with “no shoes, no shirts, no problem” signs, keep looking. Roatan is not your cup of Margarita.

The Central Government, the Ministry of Tourism and the local government appreciate and want foreign investment and further development. Why, you ask?

• Developers spend tens of thou­sands of dollars monthly promoting the island as a vacation and invest­ment destination. More than the Ministry of tourism can afford for sure, and in a much more believ­able package. How many conven­tions can the Tourist Ministry attend? How many thousands of people can developers interest in their product? No contest, private sector has the resources needed to promote Roatan.

• Developers take raw mate­rials, just like any manufacturer does, and creates an affordable product. Take a little land, a little view, a little infrastructure such as solid waste management, water control, run-off protection, height restrictions, density control, some cement, wood, tile, furniture and as if by magic, a beautiful quality, hurricane proof condominium. The purchasers can then retire in it, use it for vacations, hold it for appreciation or rent it out for added income.

• After the developer creates the product, they market it and bring in a buyer who will not only pay a title transfer fee but will sign up to pay property taxes forever and ever. This is called a ‘tax base’ and it is what cities count on for sustainability.

• When something re-sells, another big tax is paid. An example might be the fact that some 180 first, second and third sales have occurred in just the Mayan Princess complex alone. Each time that happened, the government received transfer fees.

• Developers on Roatan alone employ over 2,000 people, people with families. It is a conservative figure to say over 10,000 Honduran lives are effected directly by the 2,000 workers, who by the way, are compelled to pay their income tax for the first time in history. This is another tax base to add sustainability to the municipalities and to central government.

• Probably as many individuals are employed on a sub-contractor basis and a couple of hundred other businesses depend on the devel­oper’s actions such as material suppliers, freight companies etc. etc.

• Developers directly affect tourism numbers. The airline industry, the hotel industries, the publishers, the produce industries are all dependant on the devel­opers creating new and interesting products to bring the people to our doorstep. Obviously, the cruise line people love attractions such as new products for their clients to see as well.

So, exactly why might the devel­oper be an endangered species? Not counting the obvious increases in labor and materials, they encounter the following obstacles:

• Difficulties, delays and expenses when trying to obtain residency.

• The ever-rising cost of building permits.

•Hair-raising delays and costs when obtaining environmental licenses.

• New and improved taxes that keep cropping up. Zolitur was designed to improve tourism and lower the cost of living in the Bay Islands.

Now, the developer is facing a new 4% “special tax” on each first-time condo sale; this announcement, long after the sale has been made, and far too late to tack it on the buyer’s closing costs. This could be the final straw that breaks the golden egg.

Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and many other developing countries would love our over-burdened developers’ business.

They will put them in business within 14 days in some countries and lavish them with tax holidays and duty-free status to get them started.

Please, let’s not endanger this fine species any longer. Let’s get together and work out the details.