Ometepe Tourism updates

The yearly Nicaraguan tourism board meeting was held on Ometepe (end of June) and we are happy to announce that the construction of the airport (ETA Q1 2012) has been confirmed by all government authorities. They also confirmed that the road construction will first go to our Balgue community (ETA 2-3 months). This means that as soon as the road is there their would be only 800m of bumpy roads to reach us compared to 10km just 5 months ago. Bear in mind it is election year!

The first planes will be coming from Liberia (Costa Rica) which is a tourist hub for the region. Liberia – Ometepe is a 25 minute flight. Nature air from Costa Rica which specificaly aims at internal tourism flights has also shown interest to expand to Nicaragua. They just made a deal with the Managua airport and they are now looking at Ometepe and Corn island in the caribean. (http://www.natureair.com/).

Additionally, a new company has been set up that will bring Aquaplanes to Ometepe and opportunities to visit other Nicaraguan tourism destinations. http://nica-wings.com/eng/eng_index.html

All of this will directly lead to more tourism. There are some fears that an airport does not benefit Ometepe Biosphere Reserve but we believe that it will have a positive impact.