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Announcement of a promotional campaign for the San Juan River

ViaNica.com | Nov 29, 2010

Virgilio Silva, president of EPN, during the press conference.
Cinthia Membreño

The San Juan River, located in the Southeast area of Nicaragua, will be the centerpiece of a massive promotional campaign starting in December. To accomplish this, a variety of cultural activities, alliances between governmental entities and a media campaign have been organized with the goal of increasing the presence of national and international tourists in the department of the same name.

According to Mario Salinas, president of the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (INTUR), the main objective of the activities is to promote the department of Río San Juan as one of the principal tourist destinations in Nicaragua. "We want to emphasize on the natural, cultural and historical importance, as well as the scenic beauty, of the place," said Salinas during a press conference given yesterday in Managua.

In addition, Salinas stated that the campaign will be constituted by three elements: promotion, education and strategic alliances. As part of the first two, a variety of TV and radio adds will appear in the national media in order to promote Río San Juan's attractions. There will also be urban and virtual advertisements, screening of documentaries and ecological festivals in the city of Managua.

Furthermore, Virgilio Silva, executive president of the National Port Company (EPN), explained that an alliance between this institution and INTUR has been established in order to activate a cruise that will travel from the city of Granada to the town of San Juan del Norte (mouth of the San Juan River in the Caribbean Sea). "We will remodel one of our ships, that generally transports people to San Carlos, into a cruise with capacity of 150 tourists. It will have a casino, a restaurant and musical activities," he stated. The cost of this project will be 1 million dollars and it will be ready in six months.

Christmas activities

During the press conference, INTUR also informed about he activities that the institution has organized for December. Starting on Wednesday 1st, and during 16 days, the preliminaries of the National Competition of Traditional Food for Christmas will be held in each department of the country. The final will be on December 19 at the Multicentro Las Americas shopping mall, located in Managua.

Also, on Wednesday 8, the city of San Carlos will become the headquarters of the aquatic "purísima". This activity is usually held at Puerto Salvador Allende (Managua), but this year it will me moved there as part of the promotional campaign. "We hope to have 4, 000 attendees that day. We will make a toast in the waterfront and put altars to the Virgin Mary for the occasion," said Mario Salinas.