Haiti - FLASH : 15 million damage to the tourism sector (Partial)
Thursday at the Primature, at a press conference, Didier Hyppolite, the Minister of Tourism and Creative Industries, stated that the government was counting on the image of the recovery and promotion of the destination of Haiti in the world to revive the post-Matthew tourism sector.
He stressed that if it is true that part of the country was severely hit by the passage of Hurricane Matthew, including the southern peninsula, the country as a whole is not devastated as some media [particularly international], suggest it and that it is necessary to continue selling Haiti as a unique destination in the Caribbean.
He stressed that his working sessions with the World Bank, the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) will allow easier access to credit for disaster tourism operators.
Didier Hyppolite stated that the damage to the tourism infrastructure is estimated to date to 15 million US dollars, without giving clear and detailed figures on the damage and the infrastructure concerned explaining "The numbers are changing daily. That's why we take care to collect the data. The data, once ready, will be made public."
According to the Minister, some tourism operations are set to restart particularly in Port-Salut and to Gelée claiming optimistically... ""The tourism industry is not interrupted, it will not be [...] Haiti as a destination is not devastated, but it is rather part of its destination that is devastated [...] Regarding the Arcadins Coast (North of Port-au-Prince), activities resumed to almost 100%."
