Can tourism save Haiti?

In a recent appeal to Haiti business leaders, Former President Bill Clinton has earmarked tourism as a key investment opportunity in the country’s post-quake recovery effort.

The politician-turned-philanthropist believes that tourism investment in the region should be regarded as a business opportunity, rather than aid.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Clinton noted that the catastrophe could turn out to be an opportunity for the nation to emerge from generations of grinding poverty.

Clinton, who has held a long-time interest in Haiti, is seeking private investment as an effort to rebuild the devastated nation. He has also been enlisted by Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general to support a cash-for-work program to revive Haiti’s shattered economy.

As many as 200,000 people have been killed by the earthquake while an estimated 1.5 million people have also been left homeless. As each day brings new both lasting heartbreak as well as new opportunity, the Haitian government needs billions of dollars in assistance to begin the task of rehabilitating the country.

Beyond immediacy

Last year alone, about 800,000 international tourist visited Haiti, bringing with them a valuable source of income for the impoverished nation.

“I believe that a country can rise from the ashes in a very short period of time,” he said, citing the case of Indonesia’s Aceh province after the 2004 Asian tsunami; a case often cited by experts as an opportunity to appeal to the world’s richest people to contribute to help the world’s poor.

In March, a major UN conference is scheduled to persuade the international community to contribute to what was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.