With a new stable government and tourism on the rebound, hotel development in the Central American country of Honduras is picking up where it left off in 2008.
Before the economic downturn, it seemed Honduras was on its way to becoming the next Costa Rica, with major hotel projects developing across multiple regions. That changed in 2009, when president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown, which, when paired with the effects of the world economic collapse, caused much of the hotel development in the country to come to a screeching halt. But now many of those early projects are coming into fruition.
“In the subsequent 12 months after the onset of the political crisis July 2009 to June 2010, our B&B, La Casa de Cafe in Copan Ruinas, saw a reduction of 38% in gross income,†owner Howard Rosenzweig said. “However, given the severity of the circumstances and the intense barrage of negative—and much exaggerated—world media coverage of the event, we were expecting much worse. Now, 20 months after the ouster of Zelaya, tourism has continued to steadily rebound, although tourism entrance numbers to the ruins and gross income at our hotel is still not what it was in the pre-crisis period.
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