With music and dances they were received this Tuesday almost 500 passengers coming from Europe who came to the tourist Margarita Island. It is the first cruise ship that arrives from the old continent to Venezuelan territory in fifteen years.
(Read here: Without Juan Guaidó, Venezuela’s gold and reserves abroad would be at risk)
Insecurity, economic sanctions and the crisis had driven tourists away from Venezuela. But this Tuesday the German company Phoenix Reisen docked its ship “Amadea” in the Guamache international port with citizens from Spain, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland after 15 years.
(See also: Guaidó’s ‘interim government’ in Venezuela has come to an end: what comes next?)
“For many years Venezuela has been off the radar of cruise ships,” declared the Minister of Tourism, Ali Padrón, when celebrating the arrival of the cruise ship, according to the agency. AFP.
Official figures show that in the last 10 years tourism has plummeted in the neighboring country. Control over foreign currency, shortages of basic products and problems with public services have kept foreign visitors away.
“Amadea opens up the possibility of being on the radar of the big cruise lines again,” he told the AFP the president of the union Superior Council of Tourism (Conseturismo), Leudo González.
Tourism began to show signs of improvement last year with the arrival of Russian citizens and incentives for local travelers, but, for the moment, there are no official figures in the sector.
what happened was that the destination became a very insecure, high-risk destination
“First of all, what happened was that the destination became a very insecure, high-risk destination,” explained Reinaldo Pulido, vice president of Conseturismo.
“It is a very sensitive business and if there is a noise in security, the shipping companies leave because they prefer to avoid (problems), and they realized that the State did not offer the minimum necessary conditions.”
“Amadea”, with capacity for almost 600 passengersset sail on December 20 from France and will return on January 12 from Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica, where it will culminate its itinerary through the Caribbean.
From Margarita he will leave for Bonaire and Aruba, islands of the Netherlands with which Caracas has had rapprochements to resume relations after three years of rupture and closure of the maritime border. There will be stops in Sarborough (Trinidad and Tobago), Bridgetown (Barbados), Cartagena and Santa Marta (Colombia).
CARLOS JOSE REYES GARCIA
INTERNATIONAL SUB-EDITOR
TIME
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