Mega-ship, mountain fort could boost Haiti tourism

LABADEE, Haiti, (Reuters) – An ultramodern ocean  liner and a 19th-century mountaintop fortress built by a slave  rebellion leader figure prominently in Haiti’s plans to revive  tourism in the poorest nation in the Americas.

A key element of the hoped-for renaissance may be close to  fruition. Haitian Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour said the  government recently signed a deal with Venezuela for an  international airport, Haiti’s second, in Cap-Haitien, its  second-largest city.

Starting in December, Royal Caribbean Cruises will send its  new Oasis of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in the world, to  a weekly stopover at the northern beach resort of Labadee,  another important step forward for a tourism economy that  crumbled under years of political turmoil.

The next move could be to build a road between Labadee and  Haiti’s World Heritage Site, a park containing the massive  Citadelle Laferriere fortress and the Sans Souci palace built  by Henri Christophe, a leader of the slave revolt that freed  Haiti from French rule in 1804.

“In 2011 we will be able to say that Haiti is back on the  world tourism map,” Delatour told reporters last week.

Boosted by what is being seen as Haiti’s most stable moment  in a generation, President Rene Preval’s government has set in  motion a bold plan to lure tourists to northern Haiti, far from  the dilapidated capital Port-au-Prince and its teeming slums.

The mystique of its voodoo culture, a thriving art scene  and Caribbean beaches made Haiti a popular destination years  ago. Club Med once operated a beach resort here.

But successive years of political violence took its toll. A  popular uprising that ousted the Duvalier family dictatorship  and its dreaded Tontons Macoute gangster militia in 1986 was  followed by the army’s overthrow of priest-turned-president  Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the early 1990s.

A U.S.-led military intervention restored Aristide in 1994.  More than 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers now patrol the streets.

Grinding poverty also discourages tourism. Some 70 percent  of Haiti’s 9 million people live on less than $2 a day and  malnutrition is rampant.

FROM BEACH TO FORTRESS

Delatour said Haiti was now finalizing a $30 million loan  from Venezuela to build the terminal and tarmac of a new  airport in Cap-Haitien. The road from Labadee to the Citadelle  and the town of Milot, home of Sans Souci, could be next.

The minister envisioned thousands of wealthy tourists from  cruise ships making the trek from Labadee, where Royal  Caribbean is spending $55 million to build a cruise ship pier  and attractions, to one of the largest forts in the Caribbean.

Oasis of the Seas, which begins visits in December, can  disgorge 6,000 onto Haitian shores each trip, officials said.

“One day we hope that our guests will have the opportunity  to go to the Citadelle and Milot, when all the conditions are  right for that,” RCL chairman Richard Fain said as he toured  Labadee with former U.S. President Bill Clinton last week.

Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, talked up tourism  at an investor conference he hosted in Port-au-Prince last week  and also in a previous speech in Miami. He suggested the  impoverished nation could lure 4 million visitors a year.

That would put Haiti on par with the giants of Caribbean  tourism, Cancun, Mexico, which last year drew 4.7 million, the  Bahamas, 4.3 million and the Dominican Republic, 4.2 million.

Haiti currently receives 900,000-950,000 yearly visitors,  but about 600,000 of those come on cruise ships and don’t stay  over, occupy hotel rooms or eat a lot of meals in restaurants.  Many of the other 350,000 are believed to be Haitians living  abroad and returning to visit family.

Tourism officials expect more than 1 million next year.

GOOD ART, BAD INFRASTRUCTURE

Clinton, who ordered the 1994 military action that restored  Aristide, has been visiting Haiti since the 1970s and said  political risk here is at its lowest point in his lifetime. He  encouraged foreign investors to look toward Haiti.

On his tour of Labadee and Sans Souci recently, he even  had suggestions to showcase artists from Haiti, who are world  renowned for their colorful, naif painting style.

“There are some really good shops in Port-au-Prince for art  of all kinds but there should be a few centers around the  country,” said Clinton, who was greeted with cheers and  applause by Haitian workers as he toured.

Clinton promised to look into the possibilities for easing  U.S. government travel warnings for Haiti.

Eddy Labossiere, secretary-general of the Association of  Haitian Economists, said Clinton’s effort could produce  “significant results” for the economy, but only if the  government improves the legal framework and infrastructure.

“If they fail to do so, Clinton’s mission will be in vain,”  he said.

Roads are poor, port costs are high and the electricity  service is sporadic. Labossiere said the public grid provides  only 80 megawatts of a needed 300 megawatts to Port-au-Prince  and the price per kilowatt-hour is the Caribbean’s highest.

“Hopefully they will be able to get the infrastructure to a  point where persons will feel comfortable going back to Haiti  and visiting,” said John Maginley, Antigua’s tourism minister  and chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

“UNIVERSAL SYMBOLS”

UNESCO declared the Citadelle and the nearby Sans Souci  palace a World Heritage Site in 1982, saying they serve as  “universal symbols of liberty, being the first monuments to be  constructed by black slaves who had gained their freedom.”