Nicaragua’s tourist board said it wants to work more closely with the trade as it looks to boost visitor numbers following a softening in travel advice earlier this year.
The Nicaraguan Tourism Board and the Nicaraguan Embassy launched its #NicaraguaisOpen campaign in collaboration with the Latin American Travel Association (Lata) last week.
The campaign aims to promote Nicaragua’s tourism offering and create engagement with the travel trade, as well as growing visitor numbers following a period of uncertainty for the country.
More than 80 tour operators, cruise lines, diplomats and members of the Latin American tourism industry attended the event in central London.
An agent training module on Nicaragua will also be among the first to go live on Lata’s new OTT training hub, set to launch in November.
It will include a module on each country in the region, split into five geographical groups, and sit alongside a hub of other content about Latin America.
The tourism association is also running six travel agent roadshows in 2020, in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.
Deputy ambassador Ricardo Carioni said: “This event is a key element of a campaign we started in September with Lata, following conversations we had about what we can do to get Nicaragua back on the map.
“It allows us to have direct contact with people from the industry from different sectors, coming together to London to hear about Nicaragua and give us their impressions.
“We want to tell the world Nicaragua is ready and open for business.”
A panel discussion including Carioni, along with Lata partnerships and member services manager Megan Greaves, Jicaro Island lodge owner Karen Emanuel and Travel Weekly’s features and supplements editor Katie McGonagle, focused on how to engage operators and frontline travel sellers with Nicaragua.
Greaves said: “This event is the culmination of a lot of work to engage the trade with Nicaragua. We have had fantastic support from the embassy, and they want to work really closely with the trade.
“Once the [FCO] advice was relaxed, we worked with Nicaragua on getting a fam trip off the ground. We wanted to bring everyone together to show support but also inform people about where Nicaragua is at.
“We want to educate the trade about Latin America, and we are launching our OTT academy in November to give agents a broad view of what’s on offer.”
Visitor numbers reached almost two million in 2017, but following a failed coup many countries enforced strict travel advice which had a major impact on the tourism industry.
In February 2019, the FCO relaxed its advice to Nicaragua, no longer warning against all but essential travel.