ARTICLE - COSTS OF REBRANDING HAITI

HAITI REBRANDS ITSELF, BUT GETTING THERE WILL COST MORE
(Miami Herald) - By Jacqueline Charles

While many welcome Haiti’s push to rebrand itself from Caribbean disaster zone to tourism Mecca, reviews are mixed over government’s plans to increase air travel tax and add a new tourism card for visitors

PORT-AU-PRINCE - One South Beach-inspired businessman is installing the nation’s first rooftop infinite pool, three restaurants and an eventual helipad for those very important guests. The Best Western is offering a spa and shuttle service to the airport to make sure visitors don’t see the more seedy side of Port-au-Prince.

And the main international airport, damaged in the 2010 earthquake, is undergoing a facelift that includes two dozen new immigration counters, an overpass for passenger drop-offs and an arrival area. “There’s hope definitely in the air,” said Richard Hippolyte, vice president of the airline association and manager of a ground-handling company at Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport.

Tourism dreams are sweeping across this nation where government officials and entrepreneurs are hoping to rebrand Haiti from Caribbean disaster zone to a Mecca for visitors. An unprecedented hotel construction boom is under way and both Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien international airports are getting million-dollar facelifts.

“It’s about time we join our neighboring island countries to be able to benefit from the tourism industry,” said Pierre Bobby Chauvet, head of the Tourist Association of Haiti. “We need to get our seat back.”

The plan includes not only more than $750 million in investments that will provide an additional 600 hotel rooms but a new government tourist surcharge.

Soon, anyone without a Haitian passport will have to purchase a $10 tourist card similar to that in the neighboring Dominican Republic upon arrival, and taxes will increase from $25 to $55 on airline tickets.

“The earthquake destroyed our international airport in Port-au-Prince and we need to rebuild it and fix airports in Jeremie, Jacmel and Cap-Haitien,” said presidential advisor Damian Merlo. “This tourist card will be used to provide revenues to promote Haiti’s tourist destinations and invest in some touristic infrastructure.”

High tourist taxes are not uncommon in Caribbean holiday destinations, but the current proposal is receiving mixed reactions. Supporters say the additional revenue — at least $6 million a year will be collected in tourist card fees — is needed to help pay for more than $100 million in airport equipment and infrastructure upgrades, and upkeep of the renovated airports.

Others fear it is counterproductive to Haiti’s goal of luring leery travelers, and some question the card’s legality. A 2002 “Voltaire” law provides foreigners of Haitian origin the same privileges regardless of their passports except where noted in the Constitution. Of the estimated 600,000 annual arrivals at the main airport, about half are estimated to be Haitians from the diaspora, Chauvet said.

“This is not smart,” said Miami-based Haitian American community activist Marleine Bastien, who fears the new surcharges will be mostly carried by the diaspora, which is already being taxed on phone calls and remittances to Haiti. “They are trying to find all kinds of ways to squeeze the juice out of the diaspora. Eventually, a lot of people will not go.”

So far, at least one major airline flying into Port-au-Prince says it opposes the new charges.

“While we understand and applaud the need for the renovation of Toussaint L. Overture airport in Port-au-Prince, as well as the ministry of tourism project to increase tourism to Haiti, we believe that these increases of more than 100 percent will negatively affect traffic to and from Port-au-Prince,” said Martha Pantin, spokeswoman with American Airlines.

Philippe Saint-Cyr, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Haiti, said getting a better image for Haiti requires spending money.

“Haiti has made itself a niche with tourists not looking for resorts but rather more of an adventure. You can see it every weekend with Americans, French and Canadians at the beach,’’ he said. “The government will have to target these type of tourists through adventure magazines, websites and books.’’

Although planes to Haiti are usually packed with missionaries, charitable workers and returning Haitians, the country does attract its small share of adventure tourists. Tour Haiti, which specializes in adventure tourism, recently took a group of mountain bikers and kite surfers throughout the northern part of the country, Mole-Saint-Nicolas to Cap-Haitien. Another tour operator, Voyages Lumière Haiti, took a group of 40, including the Swiss ambassador and U.S. embassy employees to the southeastern port city of Jacmel for carnival. Owner Jacqui Labrom says she’s increasingly getting more inquiries from couples and individuals.

Some, like newlyweds Tiffany and Joshua Sheats of Palm Beach County, come on their own. On a recent Sunday afternoon, the honeymooning couple toured the picturesque city, taking photos and practicing their French. They crossed into Haiti bu bus from the Dominican Republic where they had spent a week at an all-inclusive resort. On a spur of the moment, they decided to come to Haiti for week two.

“I wanted to come here before the earthquake and even more since,” said Joshua Sheats, a financial advisor.

Taking in the scenic streetscape and French colonial-style buildings, Tiffany looked on in awe.

“Crumbling grandeur,” she said of the city known as the birthplace of Venezuela’s flag. “You can tell this was once a bustling city with lots going on, the architecture is beautiful, it’s just falling apart.”

These are the kinds of visitors, Chauvet said the government hopes to attract as it finalizes plans to lengthen Jacmel airport’s runway to allow for regional jets.

“Haiti is not for everyone,” he said. “It is for the experienced travelers; those who will appreciate our uniqueness and the feeling one gets. It’s not for the typical Caribbean traveler that only needs sun and beach. People want to see more.”

Paul Clammer, a travel writer who penned the Haiti entry for Lonely Planet’s DR & Haiti 2008 guidebook, agrees. Clammer recently moved here to work on another Haiti tourism guidebook, this one for Bradt Guides.

“There’s a real desire to find the next hidden destination. Haiti’s mix of history, beaches, art, music, definitely ticks all the boxes,” Clammer said.

But while expansions of hotels like the Kinam from 38 t0 106 rooms, and the planned summer opening of the Occidental Royal Oasis, which will feature the rooftop infinite pool, and a new Marriott in Turgeau near downtown suggest investors are banking on the capital, Haiti has to look outward, Clammer said.

“No amount of fancy PR is going to overcome Haiti’s more structural problems. You can’t take tourists to see Champs de Mars when its still a tent camp. Quake victims need housing. The government needs to work on these solid issues ... so that people can see a country moving in the right direction. Tourism can certainly help build Haiti’s economy, but it’s not a panacea for reconstruction,” he said.

“Any tourism plan has to benefit the maximum number of people, however, rather than just a few foreign investors. The money has to reach the local communities,” he added. “The biggest way for Haiti to be rebranded is for as many people to experience it firsthand themselves, and have all their preconceptions very pleasantly exploded.”