New tourist map of Nicaragua available to the public
Róger Solórzano Canales | Oct 9, 2012
Focuses on sustainable tourism; map tackles routes, and initiatives of interest in Spanish, English and German.
The local and foreign tourists now have a new map product to promote sustainable tourism. This is the "Map of Nicaragua - Sustainable Traveling", produced by the company Solentiname Tours - Discover Nicaragua, with the support of the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR). The map detailed routes, attractions, services and recommendations to practice responsible tourism with the environment and culture. All the information is in English, Spanish and German.
The map can be downloaded for free on the Solentiname Tours website: solentinametours.com. Visitors need to fill out an application with general information, and after being approved they will receive a mail with a link to download the map in PDF format file. Immanuel Zerger, manager of the company, said that within weeks the product will be available to the public, printed and free, in their offices, in INTUR and in various hotels throughout the country. For future prints they will evaluate whether it can be delivered free of charge or under a payment.
On the cover and back cover are offered to the public various sections with images and information of interest. There is a general map of the country, and then map segments of specific regions: San Juan River, the volcanic belt, Ometepe Island, the mountainous north-central and south along the Pacific coast. It also includes:
- Recommendations and an invitation to become "sustainable traveler";
- A list of 18 hotels that have been certified for sustainability;
- and a wide selection of icons that indicate areas like public and private protected areas, points of watching turtles, birds and whales, indigenous heritage sites of the world heritage.
A new map data is pointing out what they called "Live point", corresponding to sites that are located at rural community tourism experiences or activities offered by families, which includes offering crafts and guided tours. This are places where children used to kill birds with "shooters", but now they guide visitors to see those same birds, Arce Nubia said, from Solentiname Tour.
The map will be useful for those tourists who are planning trips, willing to support sustainability, consuming products and services that perform best practice initiatives and are better prepared. Therefore, the map focuses on those areas and it recommends more experimental projects on the topic, said Zerger.
Also, he pointed out that this is a great contribution to increase protected areas, and restore areas that are not protected nowadays. In Nicaragua, 58% of the natural heritage is protected and well preserved, according to a research of the Strategic Regional Monitoring Program and Assessment of Biodiversity in Central America.
Translated by Cynthia Cordero