Honduras This Week Travel and Tourism

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

This week is the final part of the series: "22 immediate steps to reactivate Honduras Tourism sector in the post-Mitch period."

12) Additional resources in manpower and funding should be allocated to the Florida office of the Honduran Institute of Tourism (IHT). The office should be well stocked with plenty of brochures as well as the latest travel and transportation information for Honduras.

13) Hit the road. The IHT should take their message that Honduras tourism is alive and kicking to the major U.S. and Canadian markets.

14) Reform Article 107 of the Honduran Constitution, which will then allow foreign investors to own properties on border regions and Pacific and Caribbean coasts, thus stimulating foreign investment in the tourism sector.

15) Stimulate foreign investment in hotels, resorts, and other tourism related services. Make it easier to invest, cut red tape to the minimum, involve FIDE in the process.

16) Place a moratorium on the cutting of timber near all tourism zones: Roatan, Guanaja, Utila, Copan Ruinas, national parks, biospheres and protected areas. Deforestation is one reason that Mitch was so utterly devastating. In addition, reforestation should take place in all tourism locations in the country, offer incentives to municipalities to reforest, open reforestation programs up to the private sector and involve international ecological protection organizations. Swap reforestation for debt reduction.

17) Invite major environmental NGOs, like the World Wildlife Fund, the Smithsonian Institute and the United Nations, to participate actively in the preservation and administration of ecologically important tourism zones and protected areas.

18) Seek out new foreign air carriers to fly into Honduras as soon as possible. They will bring more tourists and help to lower air fares.

19) Provide low interest-no interest loans to hotels, resorts, and tourism services to rebuild, which is especially critical in hard hit Guanaja and the Trujillo area.

20) Get A-C-T-I-V-E! All the tourism sector needs to be doing better,and work harder, make each visitor feel special, appreciated, needed. Amenities should be provided, and every effort made to give the visitor a memorable experience. The old status quo just isn't good enough any more in this "post-Mitch era". We can't just lay back in our hammocks sipping on cold Port Royals, awaiting the arrival of the next customer at our front door! Market, promote, get the word out, spruce up, clean Up. Complaining about the lack of tourists does nothing -- think positive, think pro-active, "get the lead out"!

21) Form a tourism reconstruction cabinet, headed up by the Minister of Tourism and key government and private sector members, as well as NGOs and international agencies.

22) Employ low-cost, high-profile measures. A 30-second advertisement on CNN costs major bucks, which obviously Honduras can't afford after $2 billion of estimated damage due to Mitch. However, a one minute news piece highlighting the rehabilitation of Honduran tourism in a couple of months from now costs not a penny! The same holds true across the whole spectrum of media: newspapers, magazines, specially travel publications. Full page, full color ads cost mega bucks, but a news piece costs nothing. Honduras needs to create the proverbial, all important, crucial buzz.

Can Honduran tourism recover? Sure it can! How long will it take to reach pre-Hurricane tourism levels? Well, that all depends on us in the public and private tourism sector. If we sit back, we will have missed the our opportunity and potential Honduras-bound travellers will opt for more "secure" locations like Costa Rica, Belize, and the Cayman Islands.

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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Videos OF Honduras

"HURRICANE MITCH.....Guanaja, In The Eye Of The Storm" A look at the Bay Islands and the worst storm in history! More videos in Classifieds

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'Miracle island' faces disaster bigger than Mitch

By CAM O'BRIAN

Special to Honduras This Week

ROATAN -- With devastation all around, one little island survived Hurricane Mitch only to face a possible greater storm. Roatan, 30 miles long and 3 miles wide, is the largest island in the Bay Islands chain. On Saturday, Oct. 23 a tropical depression formed just around the corner. Named Mitch, it became the fourth largest hurricane recorded this century. By Monday, Hurricane Mitch moved into the Bay Islands of Honduras, heading directly of Roatan.

At first, locals just did not believe the warnings. Everyone knows Roatan never gets hurricanes! The last major hurricane had been Fifi in 1974, and only the older folks remembered her. The only signs that maybe this time was different was a blending of folklore and technology.

Island signs that a storm was coming were limited. A large number of birds uncommon to the island began to arrive. Fishing got better. Artie went fishing and in less than two hours returned to his dock with a cayuco full of twelve 30 to 40 pound wahoo. Divers spotted whale sharks feeding close to shore. But the usual sign of heavy rain, ants collecting dead beetles and stuffing them into holes to eat later, wasn't happening.

Technology reported another story. Calls from families still in the States sounded a dire alarm. Islanders with access to the Internet began to track the storm. Those with satellite dishes tuned to the Weather Channel. By Sunday, islanders began to believe the worst might happen, and began to prepare in earnest.

Roatan is an island without Home Depots. Lumber and nails are scarce in the best of times. With Mitch, they became impossible to get. Islanders resorted to the old ways. They wrapped their roofs and houses with twine and rope and tied their homes to the ground. Dive captains and fishermen ran their boats bow-first into the mangroves and tied ropes from the boats onto the mangrove roots. Divemaster Shean Bodden suffered the first storm-related injury by stepping on the poisonous spine of a stonefish as he tied his resort's boasts into the mangroves.

Once lumber ran out, people ripped wood from their docks, broke up furniture, or used mattresses to board up windows and doors. Barrels were filled with water, trucks and cars filled with gasoline. Anything that could become a projectile was stuffed into already crowded bodegas. The shelves in Casa Warren, the local grocery store, were emptied.

Then word came that the storm was headed directly for Roatan. With 185 mph winds and heavy rain, it was moving so slowly that the maelstrom would probably sit over the island for several days. Everything people had worked for, and in the poor country struggled to build, would be gone. The death toll could be staggering. Those who could were moved to the hills. The rest waited in their bunkers.

The seas began to build, huge swells cresting at 20-30 feet, rolling from the north-northwest and crashing on the reef 100 yards offshore. Seas began to rip apart docks, and rivers reversed their flow as the sea come onto the shore and up the rivers and gullies. Winds picked up and it became difficult to stand outside. The island power plant shut down late in the afternoon. Most telephone lines went dead. Cut off from the outside world, islanders, expatriates, and tourist waited.

Bay Islands Beach Resort had one of the few working phones during the storm. Calls from the U.S. family member and the U.S. Embassy kept them apprized of the increasing intensity of the storm. Storm surge projections grew to 30 feet and the deadly track of Mitch pointed directly at Roatan showed it was slowing even more and could be expected to sit over the island for two or three days. More people moved higher into the hills to escape the storm surge.

Then Mitch did the impossible for a hurricane. It went around the north and east end of the island, across to the mainland of Honduras, then turned, headed back to sea skirting the south and west end of the island. In its wake Guanaja, the mainland, and Utila suffered terrible damage. Roatan, the miracle island, had survived Mitch's deadly dance.

Serious damage was limited to just a few areas. Mitch's seas swept away over 100 homes in Punta Gorda, a small Garifuna village on the east end of the island, and destroyed their road and water supply. A one-mile stretch of Sandy Bay's beachfront on the northwest side of Roatan also suffered wind and sea damage. Several homes were destroyed and three resorts suffered damage. Bay Islands Beach Resort is scheduled to reopen today, Oceanside Inn by January, and Anthony's Key Resort in February.

The next morning, the seas had receded. Beaches were strewn with conchs, coral pieces, dead bottom-feeders, and a lone blue chromis. Bridges, docks, and observation decks sat inland 200 yards. Trees were down. Boats not tied in the mangroves were sunk or missing.

The seas that covered West End's Road went back out and divers were in the water by noon time. Visibility immediately after the storm was 200 feet. The reef was sparkling, cleared of rubble and sediment. Divers reported soft corals, sponges, and hard corals had all survived, and fish were everywhere.

Just two weeks later, the miracle island is alive and well. Stores are restocked. Lumber supplies are arriving to help with the rebuilding. Islanders have removed the ties that held their homes down. And divers say visibility is back to normal at 80 to 150 feet, with clean healthy reef and more fish than ever.

Roatan suffered no deaths from the storm, and only minor injuries. The airport suffered no damage and airline schedules are almost back to normal. Food supplies are returning to normal, fruits and vegetables coming from the United States and other countries not affected by the storm.

The miracle island knows she was lucky. Her country on the mainland and Guanaja were wounded and distribution of supplies strangled until the roads and bridges are repaired. Islanders, local shipping companies, and families and friends outside Honduras are working with the Roatan Relief Committee led by Jerry Hynds, mayor and acting governor, to get supplies to villages in need. The outpouring of help from around the world has been awe-inspiring.

But Roatan faces yet another disaster. The U.S. Department of State has sent our warnings strongly urging travelers to stay out of all Honduras. With claims of complete devastation, disease, looting, bad water, and depleted food supplies, the government has taken its stand: Stay away! U.S. film crews, avoiding Roatan, are out in force to film the disaster, and are only supporting that warning.

Roatan is safe, stocked, and ready for business. As a diving Mecca, divers come from around the world to dive the extraordinary reef system. These tourist dollars feed most of the families on the islands. The taxes are critical to the economic stability of Honduras. If divers and tourists stop coming, businesses will fold, the tourism dollars and taxes will dry up, and the island will become another liability to the rebuilding of the country. The miracle island and its families will become just another Hurricane Mitch disaster.

Videos OF Honduras

"HURRICANE MITCH.....Guanaja, In The Eye Of The Storm" A look at the Bay Islands and the worst storm in history! More videos in Classifieds

Need an aparment? What about a job?
Visit the HTW Online Classifieds section

Copan Update

By HOWARD ROSENZWEIG

Honduras' US$150 million a year tourism sector has been hard hit since the arrival of Hurricane Mitch. This week in Copan Update we outline 22 immediate steps to reactivate the Honduran tourism sector:

The Honduran Institute of Tourism (IHT) should immediately reserve space for full page, full color advertisements in major niche market magazines such as: Archaeology, Skin Diver, Smithsonian, and Audobon. These ads will do much to rescue Honduras' image in the all important U.S. and Canadian markets.
The IHT must tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It must not gloss over damage caused by the storm. The truth is only 20 percent of Honduras' tourism infrastructure, hotels, and restaurants were affected by the storm, so the majority are open.
The IHT or private sector should create a web page with up-to-date travel, transport, hotel, and tour information. Right now, as we speak, travellers who have reserved Honduran trips for December, January and February are debating whether to cancel their trips. Lack of solid, reliable information is one key reason. Their view from the lazy-boy on CNN is anything but reassuring. What they don't see on CNN, however, is that for the most part Copan, Roatan, Utila, Tela and La Ceiba are open for business as usual.
Key roads, bridges and other transport infrastructure must be patched as soon as possible. Notice I said "patched up." With 70 percent of Honduras' infrastructure damaged or destroyed, it will take a long time to permanently fix bridges and roads. However, in the meantime roads and bridges can be fixed provisionally to provide access to tourism centers like La Ceiba, Tela, Omoa, San Pedro Sula, and Copan Ruinas.
Other basic infrastructure like potable water, electricity, and phone service must be functioning in all key tourism poles. Tourists must be secure in the knowledge that the 'basics' are provided for.
The IHT should immediately organize "fam trips" (familiarization trips) for key travel journalists, and travel wholesalers. There is nothing like a first-hand look to dispel misconceptions.
Send press packets to leading travel publications -- magazines, newspapers and specialized newsletters.
Promote, promote, promote! Individual hotels, tour operators, the IHT, wholesalers, resorts all need to sell themselves and sell Honduras. No effort is too small; send brochures, press releases, e-mails, whatever it takes to get the word out.
Cut prices. Hotels, restaurants, rent-a-cars tour operators can cut prices during the high season (November 1998 to April 1999). Lower prices and better value will attract travellers and will make Honduras more competitive with other destinations. By offering more bang for the tourist buck, lower prices will do much to attract tourists back to Honduran shores.
Go all out! Hotels, resorts and tour operators should offer attractive package deals with a healthy dose of free amenities thrown in for good measure. Amenities could include free drinks, a free massage, a free tour, complimentary foods like desserts, t-shirts, parting gifts, etc.
Emphasize the importance of the quick rebuilding of our tourism infrastructure to all concerned government agencies, international organizations, NGOs and international financial institutions. Needs are great, so it will take a combined effort to obtain the necessary funds to repair damaged infrastructure.

Next week we complete our list of 22 ways to jump start Honduras' tourism sector.

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

Tourism industry meets to assess damage caused by Mitch

By MARÍA FIALLOS

The Honduran Tourism Institute (IHT) this week called a meeting of the tourism industry and members of the press to coordinate strategies for reconstruction of the tourist industry in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch.

Robert Harvey and Diane Keislay Harvey from Egret Communications have been hired by the IHT to elaborate an action plan for the tourist sector as a measure of fast response to the immense damage caused by the natural disaster.

Owners and representatives of the different sectors were present and expressed the effects the hurricane had on each one. Tours operators have had all trips canceled through November and part of December; they expect to lose up to 80 percent of this high season but are hopeful they can make up some of their losses by April or spring in the northern hemisphere.

Although rent-a-car agencies lost vehicles to flooding, these were insured and will be promptly replaced. The restaurant business suffered from scarcity of supplies and the 15-day curfew.

Some major hotels in the Bay Islands were forced to close down, but with the exception of Anthony's Key Resort, plan to reopen by Dec. 15.

Airlines were temporarily closed but are slowly reestablishing their normal itineraries, although precise data about their losses is not yet available.

Representatives of the IHT stated that these factors together with negative international press concerning the effects of the hurricane would make tourist reconstruction harder, for which reason they convened the meeting to decide on how the different sectors could confront the situation cohesively.

Many stressed the fact that the Honduran tourist infrastructure was not seriously damaged. Natural parks featured as ecotourist destinies will be accessible shortly as the state of emergency is relieved and roads are reopened. Archaeological sites such as Copan suffered no damage and Roatan, the world famous diving paradise, remains largely intact. Another positive aspect mentioned is that Honduras is now on the map, so to speak. People at least now know where the country is.

It was generally agreed to work with the Harveys on a marketing strategy that continues to advertise Honduras as a prime tourist destiny, and to continue participating in international fairs and other events while telling potential customers the truth about present and future conditions.

The case of the Bayman Bay Club in Guanaja was given, in which the owners contacted all their clients informing them of their temporary closure due to the hurricane and when they plan to reopen. They didn't lose a single customer.

Robert Harvey closed the meeting by expressing that although the situation is tragic, the opportunity has been created for the tourist industry not only to recover from its losses but also to advance even further than it was prior to the hurricane. He promised that his company will design a strategy toward this goal.