San Marcos, Nicaragua's newest tourism destination

Feb. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- Centro Empresarial Pellas, a non-profit organization founded by the Grupo Pellas business conglomerate, is currently leading a new tourism project in the municipality of San Marcos, Nicaragua, supported by its municipality, the City Bond Helmond-San Marcos and the Nicaraguan Tourism Board (INTUR, for its acronym in Spanish). An elected group of local entrepreneurs are currently receiving entrepreneurship training on tourism to help develop the full touristic potential of San Marcos.

The project’s budget is US$110,000 and will be used to provide technical assistance to small businesses, as well as training to help new entrepreneurs with their projects. The objective of this effort is poverty reduction, the creation of jobs and empowerment of small and medium sized businesses, by promoting San Marcos as a tourism destination in a sustainable way.

Tourism in Nicaragua has been steadily growing and according to Mario Salinas, President of INTUR, more than 200 thousand national and foreign tourists are expected to visit the country during the summer break. Of these, 50 thousand alone are expected during the Holy Week. Considering this, popular tourist destinations are now preparing themselves by hiring temporary employees for this specific period.

San Marcos, only a 45-minute drive from the capital or the colonial city of Granada, forms part of the touristic region of the Pueblos Blancos, characterized by several small towns with strong pre-Columbian roots and craft making. It is the third most important municipality in the department of Carazo, and its population exceeds the 30 thousands. For over twenty years, San Marcos has maintained a city bond with the Dutch city, Helmond, to foster social projects.

Previous to the current project of San Marcos, Centro Empresarial Pellas led during the past four years another touristic project, titled “Tourism Development in Southwestern Nicaragua”. The project’s goal was to benefit 500 businesses in the region by contributing to the increase of income, employment and the improvement of the competitiveness in human resources and tourism businesses, while elevating the quality of life within the general population of the region.