After the declaration as a Tourist Zone of National Interest, Surf City, La Libertad, a pilot tourism security plan in El Salvador will begin to be implemented.
September 12, 2019.
Surf City, the project that drives El Salvador to position itself as a competitive tourist destination through its differentiating element: the waves. The Ministry of Tourism signed an agreement with Crime Stoppers Caribbean, Bermuda and Latin America to establish a model of tourism security in the country in the next 5 years.
Crime Stoppers, is an entity that works in the region supporting countries to strengthen security, development and citizen participation plans with national counterparts. Working within strict compliance and Human Rights they create current regulatory frameworks in each country.
“Surf City is addressing tourism development in a comprehensive manner and security is key in this process; not only in beach destinations but in other tourist segments,” said the Minister of Tourism, Morena Valdez.
“The commitment is to present country initiatives in all regions where Crime Stoppers operates, as well as at its 2019 Annual Conference in Singapore; contributing to the construction of a positive perception of our country as a destination,” she added.
The objective is to establish conditions of cooperation and coordinate the design, implementation, dissemination, of actions that contribute to the tourism security strategy of El Salvador. This will also be done through workshops, an anonymous complaints platform, and campaigns, among others.
In respect to this, the Regional Director of the Caribbean, Bermuda and Latin America, Alejo Campos said: “This agreement means completing a plan that we have been trying to implement in El Salvador for years, applying our 42-year experience throughout the world in matter of citizen participation for the tourism sector and build together the security of the destinations”.
He stressed that: “the opening of the new government and the Surf City platform allows us to offer this cooperation through the use of new technologies and motivate a direct channel among the population of coastal tourist destinations with the competent authorities.”
“Improving El Salvador’s regional and international perception of security is key to any project that the Ministry of Tourism develops, in this sense Crime Stoppers is willing to continue accompanying the government to contribute to the design and implementation of comprehensive strategies that allow to speak more and more that El Salvador is working successfully to guarantee the safety of all,” he added.
