Haiti’s Tourism Dreams Deferred by Riots

The tour guides were waiting with bony, undersized horses to carry travelers to Haiti’s historic Citadelle Laferriere, one of the most impressive mountaintop fortresses in the world.

The tourism minister was waiting, bound proposals in hand, for an international donors conference to secure money to turn the impoverished country into the Caribbean’s next vacation hotspot.

Then violent street protests in April over soaring food costs killed at least seven and injured hundreds. Travel warnings grew more dire.

It may seem like an odd dream in a place where Royal Caribbean cruise ships dock at a locked and guarded beach compound, and kidnappings of foreigners run rampant. But many Haitians see tourism as the country’s way out of crisis.

Before the April food riots, it looked as if Haiti could be on the verge of a tourism comeback. With a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping force patrolling the country, the Organization of American States rolled out $233,000 last year to train hotel, restaurant and tour-company workers.

That future seems more remote now. Riots also broke out in quiet southern peninsula towns officials have targeted for tourism development, and bandits and protesters attacked a food warehouse in Cap-Haitien.