Lucy Valenti, the President of CANATUR (The National Chamber of Tourism) isn’t holding out much hope for a turnaround in Nicaragua’s tourism sector any time soon. In comments made to Confidencial Nicaragua, an independent news source, Valenti acknowledged that “there was a slight increase in activity during the Easter holidays (with 3.8 million Nicaraguans visiting the popular resorts around the country). However, Valenti warned that there are now more cases of Covid-19 which could reduce what little movement there was as many potential tourists may opt not to travel.
Valenti commented that the month of May is not usually a huge tourist month and for that reason doesn’t’ see any kind of recovery yet. She added; “The tourism sector has been in the low season since the outbreak of the pandemic. Businesses have been subsisting through many difficulties as the sector continues to be affected”.
On the positive side, Valenti noted that Avianca Airlines currently have ten weekly flights to San Salvador and seven weekly flights to Miami which move about 8,000 passengers per month. She added that Nicaragua was an important market for Avianca and they have made the commitment to try and increase their frequency of flights as demand grows.
Tourism has suffered for Three Years
The rollercoaster ride for Nicaragua’s tourism sector started in 2018 with the outbreak of social unrest. Then, towards the end of 2019 there were glimmers of hope as tourists began to return. In March 2020, the Covid-19 Pandemic pulled the rug from underneath any hope of a recovery as flights were cancelled and our neighboring countries closed their borders.
Borders have now reopened and some restrictions lifted, such as Costa Rica’s testing and quarantine requirements for incoming visitors.
However, this April, 2021, the U.S. State Department added dozens of countries to Do Not Travel, Level 4 Red category (the most severe designation) “in an attempt to stop the spread the spread of COVID-19”. News sources suggest that about 80% of the world’s countries will soon make it to that list. Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama are all currently at Level 4 – Do Not Travel.
For Nicaragua, the “Do Not Travel” classification comes with social media warnings of “Increased levels of COVID-19 cases in Nicaraguan hospitals and communities, and the possibility of a new wave approaching”. The State Department also demanded that US Citizens and their families protect themselves by remaining vigilant and following public health indications to avoid the risk of infection”.
Costa Rica is also experiencing a spike in reported cases of Covid-19. Many blame the traditional Easter Week 2021 celebrations (last week of March) as the probable cause for that increase. Costa Rica made the decision to fully open the borders on April 5th and permit entry without requiring any Covid-19 testing.
Since 2018, the number of foreign tourists (tourists visiting from foreign countries) has dropped to near zero, and remained there. The recoveries in the tourism industry are almost entirely due to increases (a return to normal) in the number of Nicaraguans who are visiting tourist sites. Unfortunately for the Hotels industry, visiting Nicaraguans usually do not need hotel rooms.
The tourism industry in Nicaragua will not (can not) return to the pre-2018 normal, until the national political climate cools down and the COVID threat has been defeated, because both of those are severely curtailing the number of foreign visitors to Nicaragua.
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