MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Latam countries banking on sustainable tourism

With the hospitality industry playing an even greater role in many Latin American economies, the region's nations are putting more emphasis on developing a tourism industry that advances the goal of economic development while preserving the environment and traditional ways of life.

Sharing this common aim, the Latin American countries showed themselves as more united than ever Monday at London's World Travel Market, an event featuring 5,000 exhibitors that will run through Thursday at the city's ExCel conference center.

For the third consecutive year, the Central American countries - Honduras, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Belize and El Salvador - exhibited jointly at the World Tourism Market, a leading global event of the travel industry.

According to figures from the World Tourism Organization, the number of visitors to the region rose in the first seven months of 2005 by 15 percent, a faster rate than that of any other area of the world.

"Cooperation helps all of us, both the countries that already have experience in the industry and those that just now are beginning to develop their tourism potential," said the head of the Central American Council, Nicaraguan Tourism Minister Maria Rivas. The Council, founded in 2002, has promoted a "responsible tourism" initiative whereby visitors can earmark part of the price of their vacation for development projects or to mitigate the effects of natural disasters, such as this year's Tropical Storm Stan in Guatemala.

Preservation of the environment is crucial for the survival of Indian tribes, such as Panama's Kuna, whose reservations in the San Blas archipelago will be opened to the public for the first time thanks to an agreement between Tourism Minister - and salsa star - Ruben Blades and the Kuna autonomous council.

"We want to help them develop a tourism industry so their culture doesn't disappear, given that young Indians currently are choosing to emigrate to the big cities in search of work," Panama's deputy tourism minister, Carl-Frederick Nordstrom, said.

Bolivia is another country that is promoting socially responsible tourism, working together with Indian tribes that, according to Tourism Minister Ximena Yaffar, "are the ones who best know the area" in which they live.

Peru is one of the pioneers of environmental preservation as an investment in the future, said the spokeswoman for tourism promotion agency Promperu, Anna Carrington.

In 2004, the Peruvian government implemented a plan to preserve local cultures and the country's cultural heritage, including closing part of Machu Picchu to the public for months each year to "allow the landscape to regenerate itself."