Honduras This Week Travel and Tourism

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

According to news reports, the Honduran tourism industry is expecting an increase of some 50,000 foreign visitors over the course of 1998, compared to last year. Vamos a ver...

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In other tourism news, a reported four new airlines will land in Honduras in the coming months.

According to Aeronautics Director Rolando Leiva, Inter Airlines, a Guatemalan national air-carrier that belongs to the TACA group, will fly into Honduras and a new Honduran carrier will start up to replace the now defunct SAHSA. In addition, the Italian carrier Alitalia will fly 767s with a capacity of 265 passengers on charter flights direct from Italy to Roatan. Also, another carrier from Greece, whose name was not mentioned, will reportedly initiate flights to Honduras as well.

An open skies policy will do much to lower airfares and as a result give a much needed boost to Honduran tourism. High airfares have always worked against Honduras as an international tourism destination. Nearby competition like Belize, Costa Rica, Mexico, The Cayman Islands, and Jamaica offer competitive airfares. Let us hope the new open skies policy opens up Honduran tourism and makes it accessible to a larger segment of the U.S., Canadian and European travel public.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bay Islanders have the highest standard of living in Honduras.

The analysis looked at levels of study, education and earnings per capita. According to the study, the Bay Islands came in first and various municipalities in western Honduras came in last.

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Cambio C.A., pioneer in ecotourism and one of the leading tour operators in Honduras, closed its doors for good recently. Long beset by international and management problems, the departure of Cambio C.A. will leave a vacuum in the important ecotourism travel operator sector. Cambio C.A. was pivotal in opening up the La Mosquitia region to ecotourism.

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

The Honduran Institute of Tourism and the Mexican Tourism Ministry will be jointly conducting a seminar titled "The Commercialization of Tourism Services." The course, which starts Aug. 24 and winds up Aug. 26, will cover the techniques and characteristics of the commercialization of tourism by looking at the following areas: service, formation of product(s), the structure of distribution, and the process of commercialization. The seminar will be taught by Julio Espinosa Cervantes of Mexico. The course will take place at Hotel Plaza San Martin. For information, call Tel. 222-2124 or 222-66-21.

Costa Rica, our tourism "powerhouse" to the south, has been in the news lately. For starters, Costa Rica will launch a promotion touting itself as a tourist destination in the United States and Canada starting in October. According to press reports, the marketing campaign will be aimed at "high end" tourists and is budgeted at $2 million. The campaign will last until next April -- the end of the high season.

While on the topic of promotion and marketing, word has filtered down to Copan that the Honduran Institute of Tourism will spend some US$600,000 during the coming 1998-1999 "high season" on promotion, primarily, fall color advertisements in major U.S. magazines such as Audubon, Smithsonian, and Skin Diver. It's about time!

In other Costa Rican news, the Costa Rica legislature will decide shortly whether or not to abolish their 3 percent hotel tax. Part of the monies from this tax were used to finance the Costa Rican Tourism Institute. However, the repeal of the tax is meant to provide additional incentives to the hotel and tourism sector.

Interestingly enough, closer to home, Honduras has just enacted a 4 percent hotel tax, with funds going to finance promotion and marketing of Honduran tourism by the Instituto Hondureno de Turismo. Along with the new 12 percent sales tax, hotel guests are now paying a "hefty" 16 percent on top of their room rate. Let's hope that Honduran hotels and resorts improve service and amenities so that guests feel like they are getting their money's worth. If not, Honduras may be in for a rude awakening when guests balk at higher rates and poor service.

And finally, the Costa Rican chamber of Tourism (CANATUR), rejected a proposal by the other Central American nations to promote the region as one unified tourism destination.

According to Costa Rican tourism officials, each nation in Central America should market its own tourism product. Costa Rican officials are keenly aware that they spend much more money on promotion than any other Central American nation and they are reluctant to shell out money helping their neighbors to develop tourism in the region.

Costa Rica received some 800,000 tourists last year, generating some US$700 million, almost one-half of the US$ 1.5 billion in tourist dollars that entered the Central American region. Some 2.6 million visitors entered Central America last year.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.

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SPS hosts national tourism congress

By RICARDO MADRID

Special to Honduras This Week

President Flores at National Tourism Congress -- San Pedro Sula, Honduras
President Flores shakes hands with a participant of last week's National Tourism Congress held in San Pedro Sula. (Photo by Ricardo Madrid.)

SAN PEDRO SULA -- More than 600 involved in the tourism industry, some from as far away as Europe, attended the National Tourism Congress held here Aug. 5-6 at the plush Club Social Arabe.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, the Central American Institute of Business Administration (INCAE), the Honduran Chamber of Tourism and the Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports (FIDE), the two-day event included the participation of President Flores and leading tourism officials of the region and Mexico.

In his address to the congress, Flores said that God has blessed Honduras with a myriad of natural wonders, providing it the best ecotourism potential of the region. Coupled with its natural beauty and historic colonial landmarks, he added, is the creative potential of Honduras' men and women, who are noted for their generosity and warmness.

Topics included "Central American Tourism Integration," by Edgardo Suarez, El Salvador's Tourism Minister and President of the Central American Tourism Board; "Regional Tourism Projects in Progress," by Lucy Valenti, the secretary general of the Secretariat of Central American Tourism Integration (SITCA); "National Tourism Strategy," by Norman Garcia, Honduran Minister of Tourism; and "The Theory of Tourism Competition and Clusters in Honduras," by Gustavo Segura, researcher for the Latin American Center for Competition and Sustainable Development (CLADS), "Costa Rican Tourism Clusters" by Mauricio Ventura, president of the Costa Rican National Chamber of Tourism, and "The Model of Development of Mexican Tourism" by Francisco Madrid, the personal representative of the Mexican Minister of Tourism.

However, the most important part of the event consisted of the discussion and evaluation by the public and private sectors of proposals to be included in a declaration of intent that would be signed by President Flores.

In the final document, more than a dozen areas that need immediate attention were pointed out. Among them are: air and land transportation, infrastructure, education, elimination of red tape, health improvements, security of tourists, real estate laws, product development, and the development of new destinations.

During the event, participants were provided first-class entertainment including a slide show offered by renowned nature photographer Vincent Murphy and Arturo Sosa and musical performances by Guillermo Anderson of Honduras and Silvia Duron of Costa Rica.

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Gov't pledges to develop tourism
By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

SAN PEDRO SULA -- In a precedent setting meeting, the National Tourism Congress was held here on Aug. 5-6. Attended by some 1,000 participants, the congress set the stage for government and private sector cooperation to foment tourism in Honduras.

President Flores, Minister of Tourism Norman Garcia, and Honduran Chamber of Tourism President Ronald Barahona signed an ambitious declaration of intent that if implemented will firmly place Honduras on the road to the development of its tourism industry.

In the document, the government pledges to work together with the private sector and agrees to develop the following areas: air and land transportation, infrastructure, education, environmental protection, legalization of land titles and investment security.

In addition, the Flores administration proposed to develop the Los Naranjos archaeological park at Lake Yojoa, design environmental protection programs in the Bay Islands, execute the Tela Bay project, develop a master plan for tourism development in Trujillo and develop plans to operate national parks.

Other government projects will include development of the Gulf of Fonseca for tourism, improvement of roads connecting tourism poles, a study to determine the feasibility of a cruise ship port on the Atlantic-Caribbean coast, and the construction of a regional airport near the Copan ruins.

All of this, according to the plan, will be accompanied by a professional marketing campaign in the United States, Canadian and European markets to drum up interest in Honduras as a destination.

During the past four years, income from tourism has doubled to some US$150 million. Tourism Minister Garcia was the former executive director of the Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports (FIDE) where he was one of the leaders in fomenting Honduras as a major player in the maquila industrial sector.

Indicating the government's interest in pushing tourism, the Secretaria de Turismo (Ministry of Tourism) was created last year. To ensure adequate funding of the new ministry, a 4 percent tax has been levied on tour operators, rent-a-car companies, and hotels. Funds from this new tax will go toward marketing and promoting Honduras' product line in major foreign markets.

Reactions from the private sector following the meeting were positive. Said on Bay Islands hotel owner, "the government laid out all the important issues. If they can fulfill their pledges we'll be in good shape to jump start the Honduran tourism sector."

For information, contact: Secretaria de Turismo, tel. (504) 222-2124, fax (504) 236-2102, e-mail: ihturism@hondutel.hn , URL http://www.hondurasinfo.hn , and in the United States 1-800-410-9608.

Trujillo tourist information and e-mail office opens

Employees of the Trujillo Tourism office can provide a lot of information about the area and Garifuna culture. (Photo by Wendy Griffin.)

By WENDY GRIFFIN

TRUJILLO -- When anthropologist Monroe Fisher visited this North Coast city earlier this year, he called it the e-mail black hole of the universe. From Tierra del Fuego to the Rio Grande, it was the first tourist town without e-mail services. This is no longer true with e-mail service now being available through the Tourist Information Office located in Restaurant El Patio.

Other North Coast towns already have e-mail. In Tela, people who need to send or receive e-mail can go to Garifuna tours, just off Central Park. In La Ceiba, the Internet cafe has operated for some time in Centro Panayoti between Ave. San Isidro and Ave. 14 de Julio, one block closer to the beach from Pizza Hut. In spite of the name, there is no coffee in sight.

In addition to serving tourists and foreign residents, e-mail service at the Trujillo Tourist information Center is designed to help Trujillo hotels accept reservations sent through the Internet. While information on Trujillo hotels is available on-line through the web site of Honduras Tips and other sources, previously potential tourists had no way of making reservations by e-mail. Moreover, many hotels do not even have fax service. The Tourist Information Office also offers this service.

During certain times of the year, North Coast hotels fill up fast. Walking from hotel to hotel with all your suitcases can be a drag. Now in Trujillo there is the option of calling each hotel from the Tourist Office until you find one with a room, which is certainly less exhausting. Collect international calls can also be made here.

Tour Guide Gina Henry said this office will be helpful for people trying to organize tours to Trujillo. The office can be contracted to arrange guides through Cristales, the Lagoon or other points of interest. They can also arrange for presentations of Garifuna dances by local dance groups or tell when or where these groups are performing. It is also possible to arrange Garifuna handicraft expositions, dinners of Garifuna food and Garifuna painting expositions.

For those not into organized tours, the Tourist Office sells self-guided walking tours explaining the history of the Santa Barbara Fort, the Trujillo Museum and Barrio Cristales. This information is available in English or Spanish.

Trujillo is a jumping off point to travel to Garifuna communities in the municipios of Santa Rosa de Aguan and Limon. Visitors are usually concerned about bus schedules, the availability of hotels and restaurants. The tourist Information Office offers all this information, as well as how to travel to the Mosquitia, the Bay Islands and Pech villages by plane, bus or boat. A favorite trip is going to the Mosquitia by speed boat from Limon instead of flying.

The Trujillo Tourist Information Office is located in El Patio Restaurant whose owner American Ken Green said he opened it because he thought it would help tourism grow in Trujillo. This is the third privately owned tourist information center on the North Coast. In La Ceiba, Hotel Colonial also has a tourist information office. On Utila, the Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) has for some time maintained a tourist information office at the Mermaid Restaurant.

People accustomed to arriving in Guatemala where the Tourism Institute maintains a permanent desk at the airport are often surprised when they arrive in Honduras. Not only is there no Tourism person to answer their questions, either there is no bank to change their money (as in La Ceiba or Roatan) or the bank is closed when the airlines arrive (as in Tegucigalpa).

El Patio restaurant is located two blocks from Central Park, up the hill from the Grenada Restaurant. El Patio's menu includes American standard breakfasts and dinners, Honduran food, seafood and Chinese dishes like fried rice. The restaurant is in a large colonial period building, suitable for meetings or parties. Behind the restaurant is a patio area with scarlet macaws and a pet monkey where one can catch the breezes. The menu is in both English and Spanish.

The Trujillo Tourist Information service can be reached at fax or telephone (504) 434-4020. For inquiries in English, fax is better as the English ability of the staff varies. They can also be contacted at e-mail keugene@hondutel.hn. The mailing address is Restaurant El Patio, Barrio Conventillo, Trujillo, Colon.

Bay Islands named to Skin Diver Travel Hall of Fame

By MELANIE WETZEL

In a July 14 press conference, representatives from Skin Diver magazine presented plaques to the Secretary of Tourism and to Taca Airlines in recognition of the induction of the Bay Islands into the Skin Diver Travel Hall of Fame.

Rick Frasey, contributing editor, and Andy Dellenback, regional editor, said the Bay Islands are being recognized as the "Tropical Diving Capital of the Caribbean." Frasey said that the islands fit the ideal vision of "tropicality."

"Most people agree that there are some basic characteristics which make a destination "tropical," such as clear water, white sand, and abundant greenery; the Bay Islands have all of these things," he said.

Skin Diver magazine has published reviews and information on the sport diving and travel industry since 1963, and continues to be the top selling scuba diving magazine. The official announcement of the Travel Hall of Fame awards was made May 17, 1998 at Seascape, the largest scuba diving trade show in the United States. Other destinations selected include the Bahamas as the shark diving capital, and Belize as the atoll diving capital.

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

Copan on Tour... In an upcoming exhibit of pre-Columbian artifacts in Venice, Italy, Honduras will lend some 62 pieces from Copan. The exposition of Mesoamerican pieces, which will be housed in Venice's Palacio Grassl, will open Sept. 6 and close in mid-1999. Some 600 pieces in all will be exhibited. Pieces made of ceramic, stone and jade will come from all Mundo Maya Nations: Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, as well as from museums in the United States, Germany, Holland and the United Kingdom. Such exhibitions around the world are an excellent way to drum up interest in the important European market for Mundo Maya tourism.

The hundreds of thousands of museum goers who will visit the exhibition in the coming months will get a taste of what Mundo Maya has to offer. Hopefully the Ministry of Tourism will be prepared with follow-up materials and marketing so that interested prospective travellers will have to access to Honduran travel information in order to adequately plan a vacation to Mundo Maya. There is nothing more frustrating for a prospective tourist to a far away land than the lack of quality, detailed travel information.

According to official Honduran government statistics, only some 5 percent of Hondurans travelled outside of Honduras in 1997. Out a total population of 5.7 million people, some 161,000 travelled outside the country, on business, vacations, or other reasons. On the other hand some 480,000 foreigners entered Honduras during the same year. Foreign tourists left behind some $150 million last year, a big boast to the Honduran economy.

As the numbers clearly indicate, foreign travel for most Hondurans is a luxury few can accord.

The first week of August brings sunny weather, light refreshing rains and the annual flood of Salvadoran tourists to Copan Ruinas. The annual week-long feriado in El Salvador shuts down the entire country and many Salvadorans head out on family vacations. Honduras is a natural choice for many Salvadorans, the ruins of Copan are only a half-day drive away, and the white sand beaches of Tela and the coral reefs of the Bay Islands are a big draw for Pacific Coast Salvadorans. Remember, the Pacific coast beaches are volcanic in origin, the sand is dark, the waves rough and there is no reef.

Honduras could really take advantage of our neighbor to the west. The Salvadoran economy is booming and Salvadorans with disposable income are looking for nearby tourism options. Hondurans is poised to be a major player. The only question is can: We take advantage of it and market ourselves in El Salvador?

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

The upcoming National Tourism Congress will take place Aug. 5-6 at the Club Arabe in San Pedro Sula. The meeting will focus on short- and medium-term strategies to boost Honduran tourism. The conference is being sponsored by the Honduran Ministry of Tourism, the Instituto Centroamericano de Administracion de Empresas (INCAE), the Honduran Chamber of Tourism, and the Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports (FIDE). For more information on registration, contact FIDE in San Pedro Sula at Fax 566-3049 or the Ministry of Tourism at Fax 238-2102.

The newspaper La Prensa reported that President Flores received a request that the government construct a small regional airport near Copan Ruinas. The only airstrip near the ruins, currently in use, is a small dirt strip on the Guatemalan side of the border. "Jungle Flying" provides direct charter service between Guatemala City and Copan Ruins. However, at this time it is impossible to fly from San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba or Roatan to a Honduran airstrip in order to visit the ruins. Although ground transport has greatly improve in recent years, it is still a long way from major tourism poles such as the Bay Islands and Tela to Copan Ruinas.

There are currently two excellent buses running from San Pedro Sula to Copan Ruinas at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. daily, the trip taking three hours. Buses are new, in good shape and comfortable. The road from La Entrada to Copan Ruinas has recently been completely repaired, providing an excellent roadway all the way from San Pedro Sula to Copan Ruinas.

Restaurant Nia Lola in Copan Ruinas has recently re-opened after a major remodeling job. It's a great place for a couple of cold beers or a hearty tropical meal. Owner/manager Tono is always on hand to take care of guests. On a recent evening the place was packed with tourists and locals munching on carne asada, tacos, anafres and sucking down cool drinks from the bar. The new improved Nia Lola is a definite must visit on your next expedition to Copan.

Breaking News (No pun intended!)... The Copan Sculpture Museum has reopened to visitors after being closed for a couple of months due to a broken structural beam. Although workers continue to repair the damage, the museum is now hosting visitors once again. The museum is a must see on the Mundo Maya circuit.

Howard Rosenzweig, a U.S. expatriate living in the Village of Copan Ruinas, is the owner of the Casa de Cafe Bed and Breakfast.