Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
Nationale d'Haiti is the state television station, broadcasting on
four channels in Creole, French, and Spanish.
Tourism
A new international airport in 1965 and improved relations
with the United States helped Haiti's tourism industry to flourish
in the 1970s. Tourist arrivals (139,000 by air and 163,000 by
sea) peaked in 1980, and net expenditures on tourism (US$44
million) reached their highest level in 1981 before a series of
events made Haiti unpopular among tourists. One of these
events was publicity surrounding Haiti as a possible origin of
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the high
number of AIDS cases among Haitians. The former allegation
proved false, but the portrait lingered along with television
images of political violence, dire poverty, "boat people," and
general instability. As political instability spread to many parts
of the island, tour operators began to express concerns about
their customers' security, and the number of cruise ships visiting
Haiti declined considerably. The number of tourist arrivals
fell sharply after the September 1991 coup. According to the
Central Bank, the number of visitors in 1991-92 was down to
82,493 (latest figures available). The declining number of tourists
forced many hotels to close. The number of hotel rooms
available to tourists also dropped consistently, from 3,000 in
1981 to 1,500 in 1987 to 800 by mid-1996.
Trouble with the island's tourism continued into the late
1990s. Radio Galaxie announced in April 1999 that Haiti Club
Med would close almost immediately. Although the closure was
supposed to be "temporary," the government's quick response
was to announce that it was taking steps to encourage more
tourists to visit Haiti. The measures included the abolition of
visa requirements, which raised concerns as to the degree this
would facilitate illegal traffic from Haiti to the United States via
the Bahamas.
Outlook
The critical situation in which Haiti finds itself stems mainly
from its chronic political instability, which occasionally borders
on chaos. This instability has scared away international donors
and dried up the external aid on which the country has
depended for decades. In turn, lack of aid has adversely
affected an economy stagnant for some years and taken a
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