PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - President Michel Martelly was joined by the First Lady on Sunday as the government kicked off Tourism Week in the North, city of Cap-Haitien.
From the airport of Cap-Haitien, the Head of State was greeted by a large crowd and the press where he stressed the need to wisely use the tourism potential of the country.
Martelly described doing his part by seeing the airport runway rehabilitated and extended. "A standard international airport is important to have a development center in the North."
President Martelly committed to upgrading historic and tourist sites as well. Among the sites, the rehabilitation of the Sans Souci Palace and the reconstruction of Barrière-Bouteille's city gates.
In addition to concrete actions to boost tourism, the President of the Republic also intends to implement projects related to education, electricity, housing and job creation.
The president reiterated the creation of 35,000 jobs in the northern industrial zone of Caracol to be completed by March 2012. New plans have been accepted to construct 5000 homes in the area.
The large crowd that greeted His Excellency at the airport marched and sung along side the president for several kilometers until their arrival at Place d'Armes.
President Martelly describe the urgency of the hour is to provide a better picture of Haiti throughout the world and to work to find a better life for the Haitian people. The president invites all sectors to participate actively to achieve the desired results during its five-year term.
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President Martelly Meets with Hotel Owners, Cote des Arcadins
MONTROUIS, Haiti - The President's Tourism Week rolled on, on Tuesday, with a meeting with hotel operators at Cote des Arcadins.
The parties met and made agreements to collaborate on a revival of the tourism industry, a major sector for economic growth in Haiti.
Six hotels operate along the 15 km coast line, where 452 rooms of 50 million dollars in value, accommodate about a thousand tourist per week.
Beatrice Nadal Mevs, Club Indigo, has been in operation long enough to explain the situation of the coastline; since 1984.
"There are many advantages to the coast," said Ms. Mevs, "but the disadvantages are die hard."
Speaking at the meeting held this Tuesday, July 26 by the Regional Council of Côte des Arcadins, in a charming restaurant in Petionville with President Michel Martelly, Beatrice Nadal Mevs refers to "operational and structural obstacles," referring, among others, the heavy price to pay for electricity, sanitation, coastal shorelines, the slow and the exorbitant cost of administrative and customs and the state of road infrastructure.
"We are spending 175,000 U.S. dollars a month just to power our diesel generators," said the head of Club Indigo.
A daily struggle to cope with garbage on the beaches, plastic and styrofoam, the six hotel facilities, which only operate at 30% of the actual capacity of the rooms along the coast of Pointe Pastern to Flood, got together in the very recent past to clean up their beaches and participate in recycling.
Similarly, a resolution common citizen are forced to buy the conch and lobster from a certain size and to respect the nesting periods to help the sustainability of these sulfur species that are drastically overfished.
The tourism sector has yet make it less painful, the obstacle course imposed on visitors to retrieve their luggage from Toussaint Louverture International Airport.
"Traffic jams, parking areas scattered with tap-taps, the anarchic and illegal constructions on the side of Ti Tanyen, deposits of rubble and garbage lying around everywhere on the National No. 1, street markets, lack of police presence, the absence of traffic signs and lights, truck traffic in all directions ... a real package that gives the road an image of hell," says Ms. Mevs.
The problems are difficult to swallow, however, the benefits of this coast are beautiful beaches, extraordinary ocean floor and monumental historical sites. It remains to the Haitian government to assume responsibility for Dominique Fombrun Carvonis from hotel Moulin sur Mer.
"If with only six hotels we spend on agricultural products 300 000 U.S. dollars, one can easily estimate more than double when 'we will manage to use 60% of the rooms of our coast," says Ms. Carvone. "Agriculture will be the first to reap the benefits of tourism development in the area," she said, while making a plea for the irrigation and reclamation of poultry farming.
10 priorities were identified by the operators of the Cote des Arcadins:
- Setting state of reception facilities and the airport exit,
- the rehabilitation of roads and National Number 9 I,
- the establishment of the necessary security on the access roads,
- protection of marine biodiversity and fisheries control,
- the implementation of the scheme of tourism development Arcadins Coast
- establishment of a system of tax incentives
- administrative facilitation
- and customs ...are among the proposals of the Regional Council of the Coast Arcadins ATH submitted to the President of the Republic.
"Of the 22 million tourists who visit the Caribbean annually, only 300,000 are in Haiti," sadly said Samy Zuraik of Kaliko Beach.
This alarms operators who attribute this to the socio-political situation of the country. "Haiti is still under the effect of travel warning by the United States," a hotel owner gets angry.
"You have to take initiatives vis-à-vis the friends of Haiti by inviting them to such meetings," advised President Martelly. "They must ask whether it is true that the country remains on the red list despite the efforts being made."
Mr. Martelly promised to be on the side of the tourism sector. "Without being a swimmer, I love the sea, which can help a lot in creating jobs," said the president, who sees in the hotel industry a niche that can absorb a large part of agricultural production.
Michel Martelly urges investors in the hotel to go beyond their area of operation because, for him, "no one sector can not get out of the abyss. If we must do something for Cote des Arcadins, this work must go beyond the coast."
The President should continue consultations Martelly tourism operators in the Metropolitan Region of Port-au-Prince of 'ATH Wednesday while participating in the launch of Promenade Complex magazine Magic Haiti, a production of the new and the Tourism Association of Haiti (ATH)
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