Jamaica Arts and Travel News

Posts Tagged ‘Fair’

On the first day of the International Tourism Fair of Madrid (Fitter) last Thursday, a waiter explained the most popular cocktails of Puerto Rico to a group of men and women in business portfolio in hand. A few meters away, young men pretending to be for drinks on a terrace on the beach of Panama. Among the American countries, those were modest exhibitors, compared with Colombia, Brazil and Costa Rica.

What about Venezuela? Tucked away in the background, one could find a gray cubicle with stickers of the airline Conies. The decoration: a poster commemorating the country’s independence with a portrait of Simon Bolivar. There was no purely tourist information available to the curious: just a brochure on investments in Venezuela and back issues of a journal of the embassy in Madrid.

Sitting at a table, chained meetings Alejandro Fleming (Mirada, 36 years), Minister of Tourism of Venezuela for a year. “We emphasized the negotiator item exhibition item,” he said about his country’s austere proposal. According to Fleming, there is increasing interest from tour operators to sell Venezuela as a destination, and it corroborated all business meetings were arranged for three days in Madrid.

With energy and a broad smile, in a speech somewhat mechanical at times, Fleming says its president, Hugo Chavez and his Bolivarian Revolution, notorious to stifle media attention almost any other Latin American political reality, represents that one factor that has increased tourist interest in Venezuela. “Through our studies, we believe that the main promoter of tourism in Venezuela, Chavez has been president directly,” he argues. “We have used the name of President Chavez” to promote the country as a destination.

“Before they knew Venezuela for oil and its beautiful women,” continued the Minister Fleming. The two things are still there. “But in addition we have an internationally renowned political actor who is President Hugo Chavez, beloved by many and not so much for others, especially because it claims sovereign positions.”

Following the inescapable presence of Chavez in the international scene, “there has been an interest we could scientifically measure” in terms of increasing numbers of tourists “who will know the Venezuelan reality.” “I do not know whether to call it political tourism,” says the minister, “I do not know if this is the appropriate term, because a passenger also serves a political interest.”

Currently, tourism accounts for 4% of GDP in Venezuela. The minister said Fleming; the figure has improved from 1% a decade ago. The country received “over 500,000″ visitors last year and the Government’s target for 2011 is close to a million. Foreign tourists mainly from Europe, USA and Canada. However, the Ministry of Tourism plans to open three markets this year from Russia, China and Syria.

“We have a strategic political alliance with China and a cooperation agreement with Russia.” These two countries, says Fleming, “will be the main emitters of tourists” in the near future.

As for Syria, Venezuela’s national airline, Conies (Consortia Venezuelan de Industries Aviation and Air Services), has begun a month ago to operate weekly between Caracas and Madrid, on a route that goes to Damascus. “There is a large Syrian community in Venezuela,” said Fleming. In general, the new air route (operational since last September) was the most important message that the minister brought the trade fair in Madrid, and which incidentally justified the austere theme of their booth.