Honduras Tourism: A Case of the Gimmicks

The fact that people want to travel to Honduras, despite all that has happpened in the last two years, is perhaps the greatest testament to the beauty of its natural resources and the warmth of its people, and to the country's hugely untapped potential for attracting visitors.

Honduras Weekly
Tourism in Honduras is stuck. According to figures from the Central American Tourism Council (CCT), the country's hotels last year averaged an occupancy rate of 47 percent and its tourism industry produced revenues of US$650 million. The industry was expecting to recover in 2011 and had forecasted at least 10 percent growth in hotel occupancy. But instead of occupancy rates of 55-60 percent, the rates remain at 45-50 percent, and the revenue projections for tourism this year are now at US$630 million. That even that total is better than the US$611.1 million left in 2009 should be of little comfort; that year was an anomaly, with the Zelaya overthrow and all the chaos and bad publicity surrounding that event. What should be comforting is that people are still interested in traveling to Honduras at all, given the tremendous negative international exposure the country has had to endure daily due to an unprecedented wave of violence, the spread of organized crime, and the increase in illegal drug trafficking.

The fact that people want to travel to Honduras, despite all that has happpened in the last two years, is perhaps the greatest testament to the beauty of its natural resources and the warmth of its people, and to the country's hugely untapped potential for attracting visitors. Imagine if the Ministry of Tourism were working on all cylinders -- if it had in place a broad, comprehensive, and integrated strategy. Consider the possibilities if the private sector -- both locally and on a national scale -- were doing the same. Then dare to think of what would happen if the government were to actually get together with business and find ways to complement each other's efforts.

What an amazing concept.

That would sure be something, wouldn't it? A serious national tourism strategy. No more having the Minister of Tourism standing on the wharf, under the hot sun, handing out trinkets to cruise line passengers as they deboard their ships for an afternoon of souvenir shopping. No more traveling to far off trade shows to secure another charter plane from Italy or Canada. No more giving clever speeches (no one really believes anyway) about how safe Honduras is. No more paying lots of money to a foreign firm to design and maintain a relatively static website and come up with slogans that grade schoolers could have dreamt up. No more paying lots of money for a small ad in a travel magazine. No more ribbon cutting ceremonies.

Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with all of the above. A national tourism strategy can incorporate some or all of these "tactics". The essence of any authentic strategy, however, has to be goal-driven. It has to define key milestones. And, most importantly, it has to be coordinated... consistently and efficiently... over a long period of time, regardless of changes in government personnel.

What you have in Honduras is the government working in isolation (as is typical), and private tourism boards, chambers of commerce, and individual businesses doing whatever they can on their own -- all the while complaining they get no support from the government. Hardly anyone is sharing information, networking, and taking advantage of all the marketing tools (free, in most cases) available for reaching the outside world. Everyone is shaking their heads wondering how to get more people to come to Honduras.

Hey... wake up! Promoting a country like Honduras -- with so much natural beauty, diversity, and accessibility -- is not that hard. But you have to be creative, you have to innovate, and you have to get everyone in the industry working on the same page. Otherwise, it's a crapshoot. (9/6/11)