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Haiti - Tourism : Connecting artisans to tourists in the North 03/05/2015 10:28:22
Its rich cultural heritage and festivals make northern Haiti the ideal location to benefit from this growth. With its paved, tranquil, palm-tree lined roads where residents stroll or play dominoes, the small commune of Milot is the gateway to the National History Park. At the end of the main street lie the ruins of Sans-Souci Palace, against a verdant backdrop where young people study in the shade, perched on the old stones. This vantage point provides a gentle, sweeping view of the Massif du Nord mountain range, the lush vegetation, and the winding road that leads to the Citadelle Laferrière, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. Whether on foot or by donkey, it takes less than 40 minutes to reach this imposing fortress that overlooks Cap-Haïtien, the country’s second largest city and capital of the North. A direct flight from Cap-Haïtien to Miami, a special incentive designed to attract tourists, has been available for several months, and the national highway linking the capital to Cap-Haïtien has been rehabilitated. However, proximity to the sites is providing very little benefit for surrounding communes such as Milot and Dondon, and not enough for Cap-Haïtien, which, despite its rich historical heritage, is grappling with a population boom that is not only compounding such urban challenges as the lack of sanitation, street lights, and site maintenance, as well as traffic problems and the proliferation of informal markets, but is also preventing this city from meeting tourism needs. Sylvie Débomy, Senior Urban Planner at the World Bank, notes that "although the communes of Milot and Dondon are located within the perimeter of the National History Park, they lack the capacity to accommodate the growing number of tourists, and are therefore unable to fully benefit from the economic returns that this cultural tourism could provide to the area and these residents." The experts believe that many small-scale artisans from Cap-Haïtien and the small towns of Milot and Dondon, which are near the historical sites, could be integrated into the tourism value chain to promote growth that benefits everyone. Passengers on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ships that make weekly stopovers at the Labadee tourism port could be his initial target customers. However, these tourists rarely leave the Labadee area, owing in part to the lack of tourist infrastructure and site maintenance. Long-stay international and domestic tourists are therefore the main target groups for generating economic benefits for the local community. It is also with the goal of connecting artisans like Luckner with tourists that the Cultural Heritage Preservation and Tourism Sector Support project in the North of Haiti, a Haitian Government initiative supported by the World Bank https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-11212-haiti-tourism-grant-of-$45m-to-support-tourism-in-northern-haiti.html intends to renovate and develop the infrastructure in Cap-Haïtien and in the nearby towns around the National History Park that includes the Citadelle Henry, the Sans-Souci Palace, the Sans-Souci chapel, and the Ramiers site. These monuments will be restored and rehabilitated to increase their resilience to seismic risk and for tourism purposes. The project also includes plans to support the establishment of 370 small and medium entities to provide cultural and tourist services, while putting mechanisms in place to ensure the preservation and management of the entire Park. HL/ HaitiLibre
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