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MANAGUA –
Nicaragua’s volcanoes, beaches and colonial cities paid
off more than ever last year, with the number of
tourists jumping 8% from 2005.
In its 2006 year-end
report released this week, the Nicaraguan Tourism
Institute (INTUR) said that the country attracted
773,000 visitors last year, generating nearly $239
million for the country’s struggling economy.
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Oasis of Peace:
Ometepe island is listed as a top destination by
Yahoo Travel |
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Eric
Sabo | Nica Times
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The record-setting numbers were
again up from 2005, when 712,000 tourists visited and
spent $183 million on hotels, restaurants and other
tourism-related businesses.
The largest percentage of tourists
last year continued to come from the United States,
followed by those visiting from other Central America
countries or Europe.
“Tourism has been
growing in a sustained form since 1990, and as 2006
ended, it remained one of the principal motors for the
economy of Nicaragua,” said INTUR’s outgoing executive
president, María Nelly Rivas.
Since 2004, tourism
has been the main money maker in Nicaragua’s economy
Rivas credits the
recent wave of positive international press for creating
a buzz about Nicaragua. She said the newspaper and
magazine articles were the equivalent of $20 million
dollars in publicity last year.
Rivas singled out a
recent New York Times story she claims would have been
equal to spending $1 million in promotion alone.
“The article had
nothing negative or any mention of the change in
government,” she said of the front page Times travel
story that ran Dec. 17.
“It said that our
country is beautiful, that you can enjoy tourism, and
that Nicaragua looks very different today than if you
visited 15 years ago,” she added.
The good publicity
is likely to continue.
Nicaragua was
recently named one of the top 7 hotspots to visit in
2007 by guidebook publishers The Lonely Planet. And the
Yahoo Travel Web site last week listed Lake Nicaragua’s
Ometepe island as number two on its list of “Eight Great
Overseas Destinations for 2007.”
Future
Growth
Experts say that
future tourism growth remains dependent on further
government investment.
Nicaragua currently
invests less on tourism promotion than any other country
in Central America, spending about 16 times less than
Costa Rica or Panama, Rivas told The Nica Times in an
interview last August (NT, Aug. 25, 2006).
As part of a broad
five-year tourism promotion plan, Nicaragua is expected
to spend $60 million on improving roads and other
infrastructure.
The main priorities,
according to the INTUR proposal, are near the San Juan
River that borders Costa Rica, and the swath of
coffee-growing farmland to the north.
New
Replacement
Rivas, who this week
was scheduled to be replaced by Mario Salinas, a
renowned urban developer, when President Daniel Ortega
assumed government on Wednesday, leaves INTUR after
helping put Nicaragua firmly on the tourist map.
Despite some
historical animosity between Ortega and the United
States, she predicts that U.S. interest in the country
will continue to grow.
Even this week’s
inaugural celebrations are good for tourism, Rivas said.
“All the hotels in
Managua are full, and the restaurants are busy,” she
said. |
