Q & A with Alejandro Fleming, Venezuela’s Tourism Minister

Q & A with Alejandro Fleming
Venezuela’s Tourism Minister

By Jose Carlos de Santiago

Social tourism is one of the achievements Venezuela is proud of since it lets thousands of Venezuelans to visit their country’s travel destinations each year. In the same breath, authorities are working on international promotion, a strategy that has allowed them to post double-digit growth in the first four months of the year.

How are you outlining this tourism expansion?
Venezuela’s attendance in international fairs this year has grown dramatically because we’ve set out to make 2011 the year of incoming tourism. Last year we started out a plan that stresses on the development of domestic tourism.

Venezuela’s growth in terms of domestic tourism has been of paramount importance. During Holy Week some 16 million Venezuelans traveled from one state to another or inside their own states. The Venezuelan government organizes activities and provides travel options within the entire national territory.

Since 2005, we started implementing social tourism policies, and since 2009 the social tourism organization has been functioning not only from Caracas to the inlands, but also from other locations to Caracas, or within the same regions. We want to achieve a spiraling development. As we speak, around 3 percent of the entire public and private credit line systems in Venezuela is poured into tourism investment.

Do you have plans to make the Venezuelan tourism fair a more internationalized event?
The Venezuelan fair is still a fledgling event compared to the advance other fairs and tradeshows have made in the continent. We’re inching along toward a stronger positioning of FITVEN in terms of promotion and by upgrading our business strategies within the framework of the fair.

During last year’s FITCuba, you spoke of multidestination projects.
We’re working on a proposal that was born out of Venezuela and Ecuador, the Route of the Liberators. The positioning and strengthening of a destination is something that doesn’t happen overnight, but rather in a piecemeal fashion.

We’re assessing this process in a step-by-step way to see how we can make it better, not only in terms of the historic elements, but also of cultural, natural and tourist values.
Our plan is clinch a solid proposal not only for the ALBA member nations, but also for citizens from other countries as well.

What’s the situation of Venezuela’s incoming tourism this year?
From Jan. thru April this year, incoming tourism soared by ten percent from the first quarter of 2010. There are other major tour operators that have indicated their desire to enhance their business opportunities in Venezuela. There are airlines that have asked us to turn Maiquetia into a regional hub, based on its geographical location. We’re making progress little by little, but with both feet firmly on solid ground.