Nicaragua hyped as luring regional tourist destination

The Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR) is advertising Nicaragua as an attractive and affordable tourist destination. The effort is part of a regional promotional program entitled One Nicaraguan Week that recently came to a successful close in El Salvador and Costa Rica.

The project encourages local journalists to write about Nicaragua and fosters visits to sightseeing spots, either by bus or by car, in travel packages that turn out much cheaper than plane tickets.

In the course of that week, a module will be set up in one of San Jose’s biggest shopping centers where visitors could take a firsthand look at a variety of foodstuffs, traditional beverages and travel choices to learn more about the land of lakes and volcanoes.

INTUR executive president Lucia Salazar explained the idea behind this effort is prompt Central American citizens to find out what opportunities they have to stroll around a healthy and safe country.

Mrs. Salazar indicated the future is riddled with similar plans aimed at easing some access arrangements with a view to prevent tourists from wasting their time in borderline entry points.

Raul Calvet, head of the Marketing and Advertisement Division at INTUR pointed out that 64 percent of visitors coming to Nicaragua hail from Central America –chiefly from Honduras and El Salvador- and little more than 65 percent of that total use the border entry checkpoints. “We expect a dramatic growth in the flow of visitors,” he said.

Nicaragua counts on eight tourist trails –including the Volcanoes, the Holy and the Coffee ones- while it tries to encourage people to visit museums, historic cores, sun-and-beach destinations and do ecological tourism.