<h3 class="p1"><strong><span class="s1">José Napoleón Duarte</span></strong></h3> <h5 class="p1"><span class="s1">El Salvador's Minister of Tourism</span></h5> <h4><strong>It is unusual for a minister in office to write about his experience in the department. José Napoleón Duarte "skipped" the norm and published a book, 'Mis Pueblos' (My Villages), which tells about the 10 years that he has headed the Ministry of Tourism of El Salvador. "It's a book", he adds, "focused on the benefits that tourism brings to the most vulnerable populations".</strong></h4> <strong>How did you think about writing this book?</strong> It arose from a request of the students of the University to access books or documents on tourism. But I could not give them any reference because there are not many. So I started to think maybe it was worth making a compilation of my speeches, annotations and experiences in the sector. <strong>And where did you get time from?</strong> Well from 11:00 to 11:30 at night, selecting material. And from that hour, until one or more, writing. Taking away hours of sleeping time. But it's worth it. <strong>When you took office, El Salvador had more urgent priorities than tourism, right?</strong> That is a reality. Tourism until recently was not very important. But, as soon as I took office, I attended a UNWTO conference in the Committee of the Americas. There, Taleb Rifai raised the importance of tourism for the economy of a country, for diplomatic relations ... Rifai asked the ministers to make an effort to convince our governments. <strong>Well, it should not have been easy.</strong> We, several ministers, talked about it and concluded that our respective countries had priorities in health, education, security, etc., that absorbed the attention of the relevant actors of a society. For the Finance ministers, tourism was not much important. And, in a way, I understand it. If I were Minister of the Treasury, I would probably be thinking about taxation, spending, VAT. It is normal. But I am Minister of Tourism and my responsibility is to find out how to develop this sector. <strong>The fact is Tourism is now one of the largest world industries and makes a high percentage of GDP.</strong> At that time it was not proven. Tourism was not in the agenda of the finance minister in any country in Latin America, except for a few. It was just an untested hypothesis. And of course it was not contemplated as a state policy. Since it was not important, we did not have money either, so we had to do something. <strong>And what did you do?</strong> First I will tell you that I had no experience in the sector. I came from the financial world. But two things helped me: business instinct, which I developed working for several multinationals, and that I accept challenges. So I did not wait and met with the private sector. Then I met in Guatemala with UNWTO's director of the Americas and traveled to Honduras to a cruise conference. Then El Salvador organized the Central American tourism fair. There were 200 foreign delegations. And I convinced the president to go to the inauguration. There he began to see him. In fact, the government made an assessment of its first six months and Tourism came out in first place. What are you happier of in these ten years at the head of the Ministry? The most important thing is the benefit for people. The work we are doing is linked to economic, social, environmental development ... and that reverts in the communities. That's why I founded the Villages Program. And that's why the book is titled 'My Villages', which is the DNA of our tourism because that's what our visitors come to know. <strong>Do you expect tourism to grow from Spain to El Salvador?</strong> Of course. We still have room to grow, up to 4 or 5 times more. In 2030 we can be receiving 5 million tourists from around the world. Now they are 2.3. We have excellent prospects with important qualitative improvements in the offer.
