Venezuela´s Tourism to Make Heftier Contribution to the Country´s GDP

Chipping in more money to the nation´s GNP is the top priority for the recently created Tourism Ministry of Venezuela. Tourism Minister Wilmar Castro revealed in a meeting with representatives from the public and private sectors that the local travel industry´s contribution to country´s coffers peaked 4 percent in 2004.

Mfr. Castro explained his Ministry is setting out to work on three different fronts, including the sketching of a National Staff Training Plan and the improvement of signaling in major tourist areas and zones.

The Venezuelan government is also planning to create a huge marketing company under the name of VENETUR, that will be in charge of selling made-in-Venezuela travel packages.

The general strategy -he went on to explain- was devised as soon as authorities identified the four critical areas to be tackled head on: service quality, infrastructure shortcomings, inadequate transportation and insufficient marketing.

He also said talks with regional officials to designate the locations of Puerto La Cruz and Morrocoy as major tourist circuits are currently underway.

Minister Castro added those efforts come on the heels of a similar endeavor carried out by the regions of Merida and Nueva Esparta -the latter is home to world-known Margarita Island.