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Central America
More hotels
The recent
increase in tourist flow to Central America as a result of the growing
number of air routes has boosted the interest of major hotel chains in the
region, where Panama stands out as an attractive country.
Spain's Riu
hotel chain, which has just inaugurated its first hotel in Costa Rica
-the Riu Guanacaste hotel- is planning to build another one in Panama
-the Riu Panama Plaza-, which
will be inaugurated in 2010. In addition, SuperClubs has just opened up
the all-inclusive Breezes Resort & Spa Panama in Santa Clara.
Starwood, in turn, inaugurated Le Meridien Panama, its third hotel in
the country. Lastly, multimillionaire Donald Trump is expected to open
the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel & Tower in the City of Panama
next year.
Bolivia
Two
hotels to be built under the ALBA
In Bolivia,
construction of the first two state-owned hotels will begin in 2010 as part of a
hotel chain sponsored by ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas),
marking the start of a project agreed on at the Seventh
Alba Summit, which includes the
construction of a number of five-star state-owned hotels in the group’s nine
member countries. The La Paz and Cochabamba hotels will be built
in this initial stage, along with three others in Venezuela, Cuba
and Nicaragua.
ALBA
is made up of nine countries from Latin America and the Caribbean:
Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica,
Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, and Venezuela.
Venezuela
Expropriation of the Margarita Hilton Hotel
The President
of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, has just decreed the compulsory purchase of
the real estate, movable property, furnishings and related assets of the
Hilton & Suites Hotel Complex and the Marina owned by
Inversiones Pueblamar and Desarrollos MBK in the Island of Margarita.
More than 89,000 sq. mt. of the Hilton Margarita, which includes 280
rooms and 210 suites, a casino, stores, restaurants, offices and halls, as well
as the adjacent marina covering more than 26,000 sq. mt, have been expropriated.
About 350 people, grouped in three different unions, work at the Hilton
Margarita.
In late
September, the hotel hosted the Second South America-Africa Summit, which
gathered heads of State and representatives from more than 60 countries. At the
Summit, the Venezuelan president expressed his wish that the hotel complex be
incorporated to the properties of the state. "We will soon set up the Summit's
permanent secretariat here in Margarita," Chávez said. "There's
plenty of room in this hotel. Can you imagine working here?", he added.
The Venezuelan government promotes what it calls "popular tourism", both
nationally and internationally, offering, for example, flights to different
Caribbean countries available at "solidarity prices."
Chávez
recently criticized a tourism that he describes as a form of "imperialism, or
tourism for the rich," and questioned the cruises that choose to dock at the
Island of Margarita. These vessels "do not even
invest in the country, while their passengers get off for just a day or two and
leave their rubbish behind,” he said.
In September
2007, the government took control of the premises of the Centro Simón Bolivar,
which holds the Caracas Hilton Hotel (which had been managed by
the Hilton international hotel chain for 38 years). The government
cancelled the franchise, taking on the management of the hotel and changing its
name to Hotel ALBA. As an example of the new form of socialism fostered
by President Chávez it should be noted that in the two years since the
nationalization, the 250 workers of the Hotel ALBA have not had a
collective bargaining agreement .
Central America
Tourism
affected by Honduras military coup
Central
American trade, part of which goes through Puerto Cortés in Honduras,
has been affected by the country’s political crisis. Additionally, both foreign
investments and tourism have registered a fall as a result of the June 28 coup.
According to
SITCA (Central American Tourism Integration Secretariat), "fewer" number of
tourists, as well as "less" foreign currency inflow are expected this year.
Although losses have not been officially assessed yet, private sectors in
Central America estimate that the closure of the Honduran borders alone,
following the military coup, resulted in daily losses exceeding 5 million US
dollars, aside from the damages arising from the freezing of the country's
production system.
Argentina
"Medical
tourism" plan launched
Argentina's
government has launched a "medical tourism" plan with a view to attract visitors
from all over the world seeking medical treatments and interventions combined
with tours through the country's main tourist attractions. In order to set the
initiative in motion, INPROTUR (Argentina's National Institute for
Tourism Promotion) has set up agreements with some twenty clinics and health
centers that will offer both accommodation and sightseeing packages to patients
traveling to Argentina to undergo surgery or medical treatments.
The government
of President Cristina Fernández launched the program after some clinics
began offering plans that combined medical treatment and tours to the country's
main attractions, such as the Iguazú Falls or the giant Perito Moreno glacier.
In the last few years, these programs have attracted a large numbers of people,
as after the 2002 peso devaluation prices in Argentina have been more favorable
as compared to European or American costs.
This initiative
also seeks to reverse the drop in tourist inflow caused both by the global
financial crisis and the H1N1 influenza pandemic. According to a report issued
by INDEC (the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses), as of last
August the country registered a 31.8 percent inter-annual decrease in the number
of foreign visitors. Official statistics show that during 2008, the number of
foreign tourists coming to Argentina increased by a mere 1.3 percent, up
to 2,327,194 visitors. With an inflow of 3.36 billion US dollars in 2008,
tourism remains the third source of foreign currency inflow.
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