Word: marts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Mayan ruins of Copán, cloud forest after cloud forest filled with exotic flora and fauna, the gorgeous beaches and the dolphin-filled waters off the island of Roatán. But that's not what tourist-industry reporters saw when the country's Minister of Tourism, Ricardo Martínez, presented a video at a recent convention in neighboring El Salvador. With a sound track of revolutionary music, it showed supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya clashing with riot police in the streets of the capital, Tegucigalpa...
...Martínez, who was ousted from the government along with Zelaya after the country's June 28 coup d'état, was apologetic but unflinching about showing the video. "I'd like to tell everyone to come to Honduras and that it's a tranquil place and everything is beautiful, but you think I'd be successful with that message?" he says. "Of course not." Acting Honduran Tourism Minister Ana Abarca, appointed by the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti, and other representatives of Honduras' de facto tourism institute were prohibited from attending the Central American Travel Market...
Tourism was the country's main economic motor, but since the coup, says Martínez, Honduras' tourism industry - which grew by a robust 9% in 2008 - has plummeted 70%. The 7% tourism growth projections for 2009 are now expected to dip into the red. And the 155,000 Hondurans employed by the tourism industry are, in the words of Martínez, "suffering violently." Several TACA airlines flights to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, which used to bring hundreds of tourists to Honduras every day, have been canceled. A project to build an international airport...
...days following the flight to keep the ratings-grabbing story alive. Upon exposure that it was a hoax two weeks in the making, the media persisted, conducting interviews with the Heenes’ lawyer and dispatching reporters to follow them to such mundane venues as their local Wal-Mart...
...people within the tuna industry see pressure tactics, rather than courage, at work. "The lobby formed by WWF, Greenpeace and others is too strong to resist," says David Martínez Cañabate, adjunct director for the Ricardo Fuentes Group, Spain's largest tuna farming and distribution company. "We put so much money and effort into coming up with a recovery plan within ICCAT, and it was producing results. But now it means nothing. Because according to those groups, the only option is to close the fishery - they won't consider other options." (Watch a video of a bluefin...