The government of President Nayib Bukele seeks to boost tourism in the eastern part of the country, an area that previous governments kept in obscurity. However, the bet of this administration is to highlight this item and benefit more than 960,000 people with new investments.
The support for Salvadorans will be carried out thanks to the loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), for an amount of $106 million, which the Salvadoran Congress approved last Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Tourism (Mitur), this new operation will improve public infrastructure and generate quality employment, competitiveness, gender equality, and environmental sustainability.
In addition, projects for technical and financial assistance, comprehensive sanitation and potable water systems, the modernization of communication and information technologies, and the strengthening of human capital and tourism quality will be developed.
The Minister of Tourism, Morena Valdez, explained earlier that this loan is historic for the region, even on a global scale, since the IDB had never granted this amount for a credit operation for tourism. In addition, it was unanimously approved by all the member countries of the bank.
“The investment has important components that are related to the Surf City holistic strategy, which also impacts other destinations in the country. Much of the infrastructure goes to the east, but there are cross-cutting issues that will impact the entire country,” said the minister. On the other hand, on repeated occasions, the government has reported that it will continue to develop significant investments in the sector at a national level with the purpose of boosting local economies and small businesses in the different tourist areas.