On November 13th and 14th Costa Rican entrepreneurs of hotel brands, investment funds and real estate developers will be meeting in Costa Rica to discuss sustainable investments in the industry.
The event is being organized by the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) and will take place at the Hotel Real Intercontinental.
Coffee and tobacco farms in Panama increase their performance when they are used not only as farms but also as rural tourism destinations.
Agricultural production combined with recreation and tourist attraction has created additional financial income for Panamanian producers. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA) released by Laestrella.com.pa, the number of agritourism farms in the country rose from 28 in 2014 to 220 in 2015.
The First Congress of Tourism Integration will be held on the March 22nd and 23rd in Panama City, with the objective of establishing a road map for the sector.
With this conference the Tourism Authority of Panama is aiming to bring together the different players in the industry in order to establish the roadmap for the sector.
"... Twelve workshops will be held, each relating to a market segment.The idea is that each workshop presents the current situation in its segment, holds a debate and draws conclusions which can be translated into action, " said Alfredo Motta, event organizer to Laestrella.com.pa.
More and better roads in the district of Capira have facilitated the conversion of more than 65 farms into rural tourism destinations.
In the past four years this business has grown substantially due to the construction of new roads in the area. "... There are 25 farms in Capira accredited by the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MIDA), while another 40 are still undergoing restructuring," said the head of the program for Agritourism in the west of Panama, Ruby Hidalgo to Prensa.com.
This tourism subsector is just starting to develop, and it is expected that it will receive a major boost from the new airports in the interior of the country.
Capital.com.pa reports: "... the challenge now is to facilitate access to credit and for Panamanian producers to learn to do business, because sometimes they do not know what to charge for the service they are providing, an area where foreign entrepreneurs are ahead of them. "
Tourist companies believe that sustainability is not an easy process, however it can be a good idea if it is about doing business.
Katiana Murillo in her article in Baños, reviews the opinion of some companies who participated in Expotur 2013, regarding the question of whether sustainability can be good business for tourism entrepreneurs.
For example, Hotel Arenal Kioro (4 leaves from the CST) says that travel agencies support hotels with green policies, in Europe there are agencies that only work with sustainable hotels and in the U.S. there is a move in this direction.It is also a way to educate the customer and employees, which creates motivation and both of these have an impact on savings.
According to industry players, rural community tourism is growing "slowly, but surely."
According to Harold Ramos, president of the Nicaraguan Network of Rural Tourism (Renitural), agritourism and rural community tourism , "is something that is developing slowly, but surely."
Laprensa.com.ni reports that "at the end of February this year, the National Assembly unanimously approved the Sustainable Rural Tourism Act, which aims to boost this emerging type of tourism. Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, president of the Tourism Commission at the National Assembly, explained that the Act creates the conditions to implement and promote appropriate measures for sustainable development of rural tourism initiatives. "
In coffee plantations additional business are appearing such as restaurants or hotels which add value to the properties and enables growers to face the bad times of low prices of grain.
For over 5 years, many coffee plantations have gone beyond the traditional cultivation and sale of grain, with owners opening small businesses to obtain additional income or to publicize the quality of their main product.
The Intur, with the support of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, has announced new investments to develop the second phase of the ‘Ruta del Café’ (Coffee Route).
The departments that make up the ‘Ruta del Café’ are Jinotega, Matagalpa, Estelí, Madriz and Nueva Segovia.
The first stage saw the completion of 31 tourism projects such as museums, parks and other cultural establishments, said Mayra Salinas, vice minister of the Nicaraguan Institute of Tourism (Intur).
There are 26 Cuban, North American and Nicaraguan owned tobacco factories in the country's cooler north west that together account for more than half national production.
Nicaragua's Institute for Tourism (Intur), in its search for ways to broaden the country's appeal, is looking into the idea of creating a "Tobacco Route" in the north of the country, around Estelí, on the basis that for a select group of visitors to Nicaragua, tobacco is considered a delicacy.
The bill being presented seeks to promote rural community tourism by granting concessions on the islands in the Gulf of Nicoya for up to 35 years.
In order to promote the social, economic and ecotourism development of the islands in Costa Rica's Gulf of Nicoya, a bill presented recently to the country's congress recommends establishing concessions to be awarded as a priority to Costa Rican's living on the islands in possession of the appropriate papers and permits from the local municipal government.
The Export Promotion Fund of Colombia will advise on the creation and design of touristic coffee farms in El Salvador.
The announcement was made by the Colombian president as part of the inauguration of Tourism Showcase XXX, orgnized by the National Association of Travel and Tourism of Colombia.
El Mundo reported statements from the Colombian president, "...Proexport's advice for creating these coffee farms will represent a great resource in the future...".
The campaign, with a $ 7.2 million investment, is to support Ometepe's tourist related MSMEs and agritourism farms.
The project will begin next January and will start with the refurbishment of the first farms of the 90 included on the project. These will be ready to welcome tourists by May 2011.
The funding includes $ 2 million for the Ometepe tourism conglomerate, $ 2 million to the Department of Rio San Juan and $ 3 million for the proposed agro tourism farms in Nicaragua.
The Law on Development of Rural Community Tourism regulates procedures for companies in order to be eligible for tax exemptions, among other incentives.
With the publication of this Law in the Official Newspaper, the 250 Costa Rican companies dedicated to community-based tourism can initiate the process to choose a system of incentives and exemptions under Act 8724, in force since November 2009, designate rural community tourism activities as follows: