Tourism Projects Spring Up throughout Central America

Tourism Projects Spring Up throughout Central America
By Larry Luxner (Ticotimes.net)

From tiny eco-resorts to new megaresorts and cruise-ship ports, the six Spanish-speaking nations of Central America are investing heavily to bring tourists and their dollars to the region.

Earlier this year, El Salvador’s Grupo Agrisal opened a Holiday Inn in Escazú, a western suburb of the Costa Rican capital of San José. It will also build an office center, Plaza Tempo, as part of the $20 million project.

According to Agrisal, this is the first of seven hotels it plans to build in Central America, and the third property since a May 2009 alliance was signed between Agrisal and InterContinental Hotels Group; the other two are the Holiday Inn San Salvador and the Crowne Plaza San Salvador.

Likewise, Mexico’s City Express chain announced that Costa Rica will be the site of its first establishment outside Mexico. The new $7 million hotel will be located in Heredia, north of San José, according to the chain, which already operates 54 hotels in the value and business travel market.

The choice of Costa Rica was a response to conditions of “legal stability and a mature tourism market,” said Charles Adams, director of promotions for the City Express chain.

Guatemala, which is plagued by drug-related violence, nevertheless hopes to see a resurgence of tourism, particularly medical tourism. Promotion work by the Committee on Tourism, Health and Wellness of the Guatemalan Exporters Association (Agexport) has apparently generated a sustained increase in that sector since 2007.

In Nicaragua, an international airport is planned for Lake Nicaragua’s Ometepe Island, the world’s largest volcanic island in a freshwater lake. The $7 million airport will boast a 1,500-meter runway and serve aircraft carrying up to 42 passengers, said Orlando Castillo, manager of the country’s state-run Empresa Administradora de Aeropuertos Internacionales (EAAI).

One of the country’s largest tourism projects is Guacalito de la Isla, a massive resort that stretches 670 hectares along the Pacific beaches of Guacalito and Manzanillo. Managua’s daily La Prensa reports that Grupo Pellas will invest $250 million in the project, including $115 million in the first phase, which includes a boutique hotel, 490 residential villas and a golf course. In addition, the project’s promoter, Sociedad Marina de Guacalito S.A., claims it will generate 4,000 direct and 12,000 indirect jobs at its peak.

Another megaproject is under way in Honduras, where construction recently began on the country’s first mainland cruise-ship port. Banana Coast Landing hopes to become the latest cruise destination in an increasingly crowded roster of western Caribbean ports that includes Roatán, a booming resort destination in Honduras’ Bay Islands.

Among other things, the retail shopping complex will include jewelry stores, duty-free outlets, designer boutiques, a restaurant and a bar. A finger pier will accommodate two post-Panamax cruise vessels.

OBM International, which is building the cruise-ship complex at Banana Coast, also designed Royal Caribbean’s private island in the Bahamas, CocoCay, as well as Carnival Corp.’s Grand Turk Cruise Center in the Turks and Caicos.

The country’s largest tourism venture, however, is Los Micos Beach and Golf Resort, a sprawling public-private investment under development in Tela Bay. When finished, it will encompass three hotels with more than 700 rooms, an 18-hole golf course, an undetermined number of residential villas and various restaurants and bars. A consortium of Honduran and foreign banks is making $24 million available for the project’s second phase.

The biggest focus of regional tourism, however, is Panama, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into towering megahotels, turning Panama’s capital city into the wannabe Dubai of Central America.

Nearly $40 million is being invested in small hotels – under 45 beds – in Chiriquí, Colón, Los Santos and Bocas del Toro, as more visitors arrive in Panama. Between January and May 2011, visitor arrivals increased by 12 percent compared to the previous year, said Ernesto Orillac of the Panama Tourism Authority, who says the country will exceed 2 million visitors this year. In previous years, investments focused on large hotels; the largest new facility is the 100-room Esplendor Panama, a $30 million investment.

Another such property is the Victoria Hotel and Suites, which opened its doors in early August. The new 127-room hotel, which cost $13 million, is aimed at business travelers, said Carlos Herrera, a company representative.