Home »

[bana2166]

Haiti's President Says Country Needs Roads To Boost Tourism

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- Haiti cannot expect to be seen as a desirable tourist destination until the necessary roads are built and political stability is achieved, Haitian President Rene Preval said Sunday at a tourism conference in South Florida.

The president's speech at a Miami Beach hotel capped a three-day conference where local and Haitian business investors discussed how tourism could boost the Caribbean country's crippled economy. Haitian leaders want potential tourists to envision the country's beautiful landscape, rich culture and exotic cuisine -- not the Western hemisphere's poorest nation riddled with violence.

Neighboring Caribbean island Cuba had 2.5 million visitors and the Dominican Republic had 4 million visitors in 2005, Preval said in a 90-minute speech that was delayed nearly three hours.

Haiti had 112,000 tourists that same year, he said.

"The first thing everybody is asking for is roads. How can you talk about tourism without having the highways that take the tourists to places in a comfortable way?" Preval said through an interpreter.

Preval said he would rely on international financial help to defray the cost of road building, though he did not specify the estimated cost or a timeline for construction.

Gov. Jeb Bush had also been scheduled to speak at Sunday, but did not attend the event. A spokeswoman said Bush, who governs a state with a large Haitian community, sent a representative to the conference and is committed to working with Haiti to improve its situation.

"We want to help with a strong Haiti, a healthy Haiti," spokeswoman Alia Faraj said.

Serge Philippe Pierre, marketing director for the Haitian airline Tortug' Air, said he was encouraged by Preval's vision to boost tourism. "It is a good way for Haiti to rebuild the country," he said. "It's a not a dream, it will become a reality. The money is there -- we can find it from the international community."

Preval, a 63-year-old champion of the poor, took power last month following a two-year interim government installed after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was deposed amid a February 2004 revolt.

Throughout his speech, Preval repeated the need for stability in his country and begged his countrymen to stop the violence. Political unrest was the main reason why Haiti was not viewed as a safe, desirable tourist destination, he said.

"We have other islands in the Caribbean that have far more crime than we do, but nobody talks about them because they have political stability," Preval told about a packed hotel ballroom of about 400 diners, mostly from South Florida's Haitian community.

Haiti had been relatively calm since Preval was elected Feb. 7, but recent kidnappings and attacks on police and U.N. peacekeepers have raised fears of a flare-up of violence similar to the mayhem following the 2004 revolt that toppled Aristide. An upsurge in gang violence has led U.N. troops to increase patrols and checkpoints in Port-au-Prince, the volatile Haitian capital.

A Canadian missionary kidnapped from his home north of Port-au-Prince a week ago was released Sunday. Twenty-nine people were kidnapped in Haiti's capital last month, up from 15 in April, according to the U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Haiti also needs to streamline the process for investors, he said. In the Dominican Republic investors can open a business in two days, but Haiti's political red tape often forces investors to donate to political causes before they can open a business, he said.

Preval also called on U.S. lawmakers to help boost Haiti's economy by passing the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement Act, which supporters say could create as many as 20,000 jobs in the Caribbean country.

Kwame Raoul, an Illinois state senator whose parents immigrated from Haiti to Chicago, said the HOPE Act was "a very limited step" and would only create jobs that paid less than $2 an hour.

"But even that is a symbolic step forward," said Raoul, who is lobbying to pass the act. "The situation of despair (in Haiti) has reached a level to where nobody can deny what exists."