Honduras bets on tourism for economic reactivation
The president of the National Chamber of Tourism of Honduras (Canaturh) confided that despite all the problems caused by the pandemic and storms Iota and Eta, the “industry without chimneys” will succeed.
Recently, the World Bank (WB) announced the investment of about 150 million dollars (L3,640 million) in the execution of an emergency project aimed at the restoration of Honduras and the reactivation of many headings, including tourism after the passage of storms Eta and Iota last November.
The leader acknowledged that “these are quite difficult times and worldwide the pandemic has affected tourism in a quite harsh way, however, we are trying to survive.”
“We plan to create some financial instruments that keep companies on float. It must be remembered that this industry generates a lot of employment and foreign exchange, so that what happened has caused a great impact on the country’s economy”, he said.
In that sense, he revealed that “we are changing business models, as we are seeing a trend towards outdoor activities, with open places and fortunately, Honduras has much to offer in mountain tourism and places to camp”.
He noted that “we can do, we understand that the trends are towards domestic tourism, we are already talking with authorities of the Academy of Gastronomy because Honduras is very rich in that and there are opportunities that we can take advantage of.”
He highlighted that Honduras generates about 800 million dollars in foreign currency in a normal year, we are talking about an average of 80 million dollars per month and that is what has been left to receive only in international tourism.
“Meanwhile, in domestic tourism it generates between 10 and 20 billion lempiras in foreign currency, and that has also collapsed due to the storms that affected the country in November and December when we thought to resurface, but that did not happen,” he lamented.
He recalled that “with the economic reopening that began in August and September, of the 154 thousand jobs we had in January last year, 30% were recovered when restaurants were opened and 15% with hotels”.
Ricardo Duarte Jiménez
Partner, Regional Director of Labor practice
García & Bodán
Honduras