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Central America regional tourism strategy launched

Róger Solórzano Canales | Apr 19, 2012

Homepage of the Web Site "Descubre Centromérica" (Discover Central America)

Intra-regional public-private partnership seeks to stimulate the tourism of Central Americans in Central America.

A hundred of private tourist companies, the government tourist authorities of the region, and the TACA airlines have join forces to start the campaign "Descubre Centromérica" (Discover Central America) which seeks to increase the flow of tourist travelers inside the region and make known the Central Americans destinations to the local tourists through media promotion, and affordable prices on packages and flights.

The multilateral public-private strategy was released today Thursday April 19th in Nicaragua, through a press conference in Managua which was exposed by members of the “Cámara Nacional de Turismo” -CANATUR- (National Chamber of Tourism), the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR) and TACA. All the countries of the isthmus are involved in the campaign: Belice, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panamá.

There are several concrete actions provided to energize the intraregional tourism with this campaign. As explained at the conference, these are:

  • A Central American unique fee to travel from and to any of the involved countries for US$229 (from today until May 3rd) for which TACA will be providing 26,000 seats.
  • Complete packages offer to each country that include flights, land transportation, hotels and tours, with special prices that have discount from among the 30% and 40% of the regular price.
  • Information available in special web sites (such as: descubriendocentroamerica.com) and all the traveling agencies of the region.
  • A media and social networking campaign internally in each country developed by government tourist agencies.

According to Teresita Ramírez from TACA, the campaign will run in two stages this year. The first one is effective from April the 20th to May the 20th to buy the products (packages) and from April the 23rd to July the 4th to make the trips and consume these products. The second one will be effective from September to November. After that first stage they will announce the results and report the details of the second stage, Ramírez said.

Juan Gabriel Schütze, treasurer of the CANATUR, said that for Nicaragua there are 30 companies participating in the program, which are six tour operators and 24 hotels. These companies were the ones that presented a specific offer when there was a call to participate in the program. The axes destinations of our country, detailed the functionary, are Leon, Granada, Ometepe, San Juan del Sur and Río San Juan, although it intends to involve offers in other touristic attractions.

“The intraregional tourism is what keeps the tourism alive in the low seasons” said Schütze, and after thanking the disposition of the entities involved, qualified of “hito historico” (historical milestone) this program, because there has never been such a huge effort, integrating and bringing together many public and private actors in the region.

In specific figures, as described in the conference, the program “Descubre Centroamerica" (Discover Central America)” intends to move 10,000 new travelers in the region, in comparison to 2011. The total investment is US$410,000, and TACA and the government tourism agencies of each country involved are participating in it.

Translated by Aída Pichardo