El Salvador Holds First National Tourism Forum

The Salvadoran Tourism Ministry opened Monday the First National Tourism Forum in an effort to make all sectors linked to the travel industry join hands and come up with a comprehensive development strategy.

“The objective of the forum is to establish both priorities and needs for the sake of the sector’s sustainable development through a hands-on and harmonic process. This process will require a through assessment of all strategies based on a number of guidelines,” the Central American country’s Tourism Ministry informed in a press release.

The forum’s outcomes will set the predicate for a much broader tourism strategy nationwide.

As we speak, tourism’s contribution to the Salvadoran economy climbed from 1.7 percent of the total GDP in 1999 to 2.5 percent in 2003. According to the nation’s Tourism Minister Luis Cardenal, that figure is expected to double over the next five years.

Last year, El Salvador welcomed 857,378 visitors who shelled out $373 million worth of revenues, way above profits made by other traditional crops such as coffee ($107 million).

The event’s opening remarks were delivered by Vice President Ana Vilma Alvanez. As many as 150 people linked to the private and public sectors attended the gathering at a hotel in the nation’s capital.