Nicaragua Lures French Investors to Develop Local Travel Industry

Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolaños has just wrapped up a three-day visit to Paris on a mission to promote his country’s natural beauties and talk potential investors into pouring far more cash into the Central American nation.

Out of France –Nicaragua’s fourth-largest tourism investor- Mr. Bolaños and his entourage are trying to bring advisory and technical assistance for an array of travel projects, chiefly in the fields of rural tourism and sustainable development, two areas in which the European country has great experience and expertise.

“Nicaragua has a lot to offer in terms of cultural and natural resources. We’re rapidly turning the country into a new travel destination in the Americas, right in the heart of the Western Hemisphere where the North and South meet halfway,” Mr. Bolaños said Monday at the end of his first meeting in Paris.

With Foreign Minister Norman Caldera and Tourism Minister Lucia Salazar in tow, the Nicaragua President remembered his country has always had a privileged state of relations with France, especially with major presence in several projects on ecotourism and colonial travel.

During his brief stay in Paris, Mr. Bolaños painted the picture of a developing country that provides a judicial safety net for investors, a place teeming with breathtaking scenery that holds roughly 7 percent of the world’s biodiversity and is armed with an enviable historic heritage and high security levels compared to its neighboring Central American nations.