For Tourism, Lots of Movement Behind the Scenes

2012 could be a big year for PR and infrastructure for Nicaragua’s tourism industry What’s Not to Love? Nicaragua’s tourism industry continues to catch fire (photo / Tim Rogers)
By Tim Rogers/ Nicaragua Dispatch

April 26, 2012 The Nicaraguan Tourism Institute (INTUR) has launched a new partnership with global online travel booking agency Orbitz Worldwide and Taca Airlines as part of its new promotion and visibility campaign. The alliance is one of several strategic moves to help position Nicaragua better in the U.S. market, the priority for attracting tourism this year. In addition to INTUR’s aggressive media-marketing campaign in the U.S., Nicaragua will continue to make its presence known among the ruck of U.S. popular culture by hosting reality TV programs and even making an appearance at the movies.

INTUR is currently negotiating with MTV and several other U.S. cable channels to bring a variety of reality programming here, and the forth-coming feature film “Destination Wedding” will be a lowbrow comedy about a U.S. couple that decides to get married on a tropical beach in Nicaragua.

More intelligent viewers, meanwhile, will soon enjoy seeing Nicaragua featured on Nat Geo TV, which is currently filming on Ometepe Island, according to Tourism Minister Mario Salinas.

Nicaragua is also expected to get a big boost in tourism infrastructure this year, the minister said. The country is working with the Inter-American Development Bank and Royal Caribbean to build a tourism pier in San Juan del Sur, and has already secured funding for a small tourism marina on Lake Cocibolca in Granada. The government is also studying the possibility of building a private airport in Rivas, Salinas said. Salinas says Nicaragua is also close to announcing the construction of four new international brand hotels, three of which will be built in Managua and one on the Pacific coast.

More incredible yet, the tourism minister says an Italian consortium is visiting Nicaragua for the second time to make a bid on building the fabled “Costanera” highway, a coastal tourism road that will connect all the beach towns between Masachapa and Costa Rica. The “Costanera” has been a will-o’-the-wisp project for more than 40 years, but is now closer than ever to becoming a reality, Salinas says.