Venezuela, Haven for All Types Interview with Ali Padron, communist Vice-Minister of Tourism James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 30 November 2015 I met Ali Padron, a very dapper-looking Venezuelan communist and vice-minister of International Tourism, at the flashy World Travel Market fair at the Excel centre in London’s Docklands at the beginning of November. Amid elaborate stands dressed up as Arabian palaces and Central American jungles we talked the politics of the holiday business. Ali has been meeting fellow ministers from Spain, Belarus, the Philippines and other countries with the aim of strengthening relations and boosting tourist income to the south Caribbean nation. “We need to fight against the blockade,” he says. “We need to increase the number of tourists coming to Venezuela, and one way to do that is making better relations with the tourist sector.” Tourism currently accounts for 3 per cent of Venezuela’s GDP, with about one million visitors a year, but the government wants to increase that three-fold in the next five years, Ali explains. He says it’s not impossible. His ministry is working to diversify the economy away from the oil sector and its downstream industries like plastics and chemicals, with the whole sector languishing amid a crisis of overproduction, which the government says is deliberate economic sabotage by the US and its allies. It is also working to diversify its tourist connections, encouraging more direct flights from the rest of Latin America — including the huge regional hub that is Panama Tocumen Airport — and from Europe. The capacity is already there, with accommodation, including 14 hotels in the state-owned Venetur chain and a 740,000-acre holiday ranch — a heaven for birdwatchers as much as wannabe cowboys — more than 2,500 miles of some of the best beaches on Earth, the mighty Orinoco river nature trails and hundreds of attractions awaiting tourists. The government is supporting small and medium-sized enterprises that often serve and thrive off the tourism. The tourist sector enjoys the lowest borrowing interest rates at 9 per cent, or 6 per cent for eco-tourism. “The government is supporting small restaurants, hotels, hostels and guest houses. It’s investing in the highest and longest cable car, new hotels for the private sector.” For more adventurous backpackers, Venezuela has also invested in more than 30 new cross-country bus lines, as a joint venture with China. For urban tourists, Caracas has been extensively redeveloped and now boasts five underground lines. But Ali and his team have to contend with propaganda painting their country as a virtual warzone — with crime rates so high no decent person would venture out at night — and paradoxically a police state, where anyone speaking out against the government is imprisoned or killed. Tourism numbers have fallen by around half as a result. Ali points out that crime rates in Mexico — whose tourist board is sponsoring the fair as well as specially decorated Tube trains — are around two or three times higher than in Venezuela and yet resorts like Cancun and Acapulco are still seen as attractive holiday destinations. “This is a perception that has been created by the media in the Western hemisphere,” Ali says. “It is a fear that has been created in order to bring about consequences against Venezuela, against the government.” In reality, the resorts are well policed and crime is not tolerated. Every hotel has a book for client complaints and management have to resolve them within 24 hours and inform the ministry of how they have been addressed, or face sanctions. Random inspections help enforce the system. Venezuela is a veritable paradise. As we speak, a TV on the wall behind us shows an endless loop of Venezuela’s best tourist attractions. Ali is proud, as all Venezuelans seem to be, of their country’s natural beauty, and enthusiastically points out the highlights. One these is the famous Angel Falls, a staggering 3,000 feet high. Getting there is an adventure in itself, involving a four-hour trip upriver from a forest camp. Another is the phenomenal lightning storms where the Catatumbo river empties into Lake Maracaibo, with hundreds of flashes every hour. You can pull a giant anaconda from a river by its tail — “it’s inoffensive” Ali assures us — or swim with dolphins. Venezuela is a haven for water sports enthusiasts, with some of the best windsurfing conditions in the world on offer. A huge country of around 30 million inhabitants with a relatively underdeveloped countryside, it boasts plains and mountains, jungles and deserts, islands and national parks, white beaches and green seas with average temperatures of 26 degrees centigrade: “Like soup,” says Ali. It’s also a cheap place to go on holiday. “A very good breakfast costs one dollar,” says Ali. Two weeks in the Morrocoy National Park in Falcon state on the Caribbean coast will set you back £1,000. Now’s the time to visit, before the stampede begins. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-ea85-An-unsung-haven-for-all-types#.Vlv CS3YrK00 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. 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