About two weeks ago, we were chatting about the possibility of using Carnival to foster tourism in Haiti. However; now that Carnival is past and we find out that it has left one dead and 540 injured, there is a problem with this. And this was our concern about the idea from the start: the safety of people and tourists traveling to Haiti for Carnival.
Sebastian said it well when he wrote “But for a country to receive high numbers of tourists, its infrastructure must be up to par, it must have both political and social stability, but most importantly it must reduce the insecurity that has plagued Haiti for the past 15-20 years. Additionally, there are not enough hotels in the capital to accommodate an influx of tourists and there are still today too many isolated instances of crime and kidnapping. Before tourism can be a significant part of Haiti again, it needs to have some basic transformations. Although I agree that the initiation of the tourist industry is the only way of developing it, who will come to Haiti when the basic infrastructures and basic security is not in place? I think most would rather be in the Bahamas or elsewhere.”
And we can not agree more. He later goes onto say that Carnival might work in the tourist trade if we move it out of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Yet in a city in which 1 million people participated in Carnival, it would be wonderful to see the infrastructure of Haiti strengthened so that it could remain in the place with the most hotels and and the main avenue into Haiti.
I reposted the article about Carnival below from Sina English.
One dead, 540 injured during Carnival in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) — At least 259 people were reported injured in the concluding hours of Haiti’s Carnival 2009,bringing the total casualties in the festivity to one death and 540 injuries, local police said on Thursday.
The sole fatality was identified as 15-year-old Sandra Pierre, who suffered several fractures in the skull after a gigantic carriage rolled over upon her during a street concert in Port-au-Prince, a police spokesman said on Thursday.
According to official statistics, around one million local residents participated in this year’s Carnival, which began on Sunday.
In order to guarantee social order and security, Haitian police had sought the cooperation of the Red Cross and UN peacekeeping forces, Gary Desrosiers, Haitian police spokesman, told Xinhua.
Olsen Jan Julien, Haitian minister of culture and communication, said that Carnival celebrations help create employment and consumption in sectors like tourism and transportation, which implies considerable economic profitability to the Caribbean country.
He deemed the cultural-social event to be positive despite the casualties, and said that a permanent committee is to be established for the conservation and promotion of the Carnival, which he called a cultural-material heritage of Haiti.
