Q & A with Ruben Rochi, Tourism Minister of El Salvador

Mr. Rochi is pinning his hopes on the cohesion the seven Central American nations have forged to get together under one solid tourism brand in terms of international promotion and advertisement. He’s confident this group of countries will be able to work out current differences with Costa Rica, a nation that decided not to attend the latest edition of the Central America Travel Market held in Honduras.

I’d like to begin by asking you a very sensitive and thorny question whose answer could be very useful to our readers, though. What’s going on right now in Central America in relation to the Costa Rican position?

-First of all I must underscore that we maintain very close ties and that we continue to huddle on a regular basis, just like we’ve been doing through all this time. As in any personal or professional relationship, there’re always differences and minor rifts on certain issues, and our case is no exception to the rule. However, we’ve always been able to work out those differences for the benefit of the entire Central American region.

We all know this is a very positive project that has been hailed amazingly well by the markets, especially in Europe, and that’s something very important. We also know there’s one pending issue we ought to iron out and I’m talking about Costa Rica. Costa Rica is making its own interpretation of the organization’s guidelines and rules, chiefly in terms of CATA’s actual outreach. Our own interpretation varies somewhat, but I’m sure we’ll be able to work it out just like we’ve always done in the past.

What’s El Salvador going to do from a promotional standpoint to put the country on the map before the eyes of the European nations and lure those major outbound markets?

-That’s a tough question. I can tell you, however, that we’re wrapping up the final stage to define the kind of brand the country is going to use in its own advertisement efforts. The government’s own publicity agency is working on that issue right now.

What’s El Salvador going to do to improve the infrastructure? What will the target markets be for the industry investors, especially at the beginning?

-The country’s infrastructure is pretty good. As a matter of fact, we have the finest roads in all Central America, the region’s best airport, the best power grid that currently meets 83 percent of nation’s needs, let alone a telecommunication system that’s second to none in Central America, completely privatized and streamlined.

However, I must confess we do have problems to meet the demand of hotel rooms, mainly in the beach areas. This year, I myself got involved in visiting a number of hotel chains. I’ve been to Majorca twice, to the U.S. and we’ve been trying to goad hotel chains into El Salvador. We’re offering fiscal perks to make the country far more attractive in the face of foreign investment. And up to now I’ve received notifications from several Spanish hoteliers willing to dispatch technical teams to the country to check on existing conditions.

One of those groups is Barcelo and it has already sent an evaluation team. They’ve been looking for vacant lots and doing research on their investment capabilities in El Salvador. Other hotel chains, both American and European, are weighing whether to send out teams to the country.

As far as promotion and advertisement are concerned, I must confess North America is our number-one market, and for a good number of reasons. We stand just two and half hours away from Miami and we have nonstop flights to and from many of the major U.S. cities. So, connections are not a problem and we are under the U.S. influence area. That leads us to consider America our number-one market.

We’re determined to raise the inflow of American travelers to El Salvador from 24 percent now to 40 percent by 2014. The number of European sunbathers right now in somewhere around 2.6 percent and we want to take it to double-digit levels by 2014 as well. That makes Europe our second-largest outbound market.

What European countries are you mostly interested in?
-First of all, we’re zeroing in on the top five markets: England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany. Nonetheless, as more and more nonstop flights pop up we’ll be focusing on other markets as well.

As we speak, we’re holding talks with a couple of airlines to start flights to and from El Salvador next year.

Is Air Madrid one of those two airlines?

-We’ll find out in the coming fairs. I’d like to use the tradeshows to be held in the first quarter of next year as the platform for this kind of announcement. All I can say right now is that negotiations are going well and the official announcement could be made in FITUR or ITB early next year.

Is there anything else you’d like to get in edgeways?

-Just that we’re very enthusiastic. Right now El Salvador has what it takes, all the resources it didn’t have in the past to make its own travel industry advance. I must say that President Saca is very determined in this sense.

We’re very confident that sooner rather than later there’ll be far more options for new connections between Europe and El Salvador, in order to make more European travelers visit our country. El Salvador is a small country, yet very beautiful and with plenty of choices to offer.