Nicaragua Tourism up over 7% in 2008
Jan 25th, 2009 by Kevin
(Photo: Bill Wooten)
Despite a world financial crisis and a year of political turmoil here, Nicaragua’s small yet feisty tourism sector proved its resilience in 2008 by growing 7.2 percent, according to numbers released this week by the Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR).
This from an article this past week in the Nica Times. INTUR is calling this one of the greatest achievements of 2008, with international tourist numbers up from 799,996 to 857,480! Although the majority of tourists are coming from other parts of central America, North Americans showed the most growth at 13.7% (233,235 tourists).
If you are an investor or potential investor in this country, here are some key facts to note from the article:
- Investment in tourism projects under Law 306 (the Law of Tourism Incentives), also increased to $17.1 million last year, up from $5.2 million in 2007.
- The cruise ship industry also showed important potential last year. A total of 59 cruise ships visited Nicaragua in 2008, up nearly 60 percent from the year before.
- NTUR implemented a variety of strategies last year to promote Nicaragua as a tourist destination. It included trade shows, media promotions. The agency also focused heavily on developing human resources by working with U.S. and European travel agencies and tour operators who then replicate Nicaragua’s promotional reach in other countries.
- Nicaragua benefited from positive tourism stories in important international media outlets, including Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel, The Chicago Tribune, The Miami Herald, Sports Illustrated and the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) magazine, to name a few.
- Tourism based infrastructure project such as the The Water Route (95% complete) and the coffee route in the north. We also saw this in the North Peninsula.
Despite the worries around the political situation in Nicaragua, the government continues to be very open to foreign investment and tourism based initiatives as it clearly sees the link between this and improving the economic conditions of the country and its people.
