The island of Boa Vista will be “better prepared” for the development of a sustainable, quality and environmentally and socially aware tourist sector in the opinion of the administrative council president of the Boa Vista and Maio Integrated Tourist Development Corporation, João Serra, as the result of the signing of a partnership protocol with the BUCAN consortium. The accord calls for some 33 billion escudos in investments in the area of infrastructures for the island.

The accord, which was signed last Wednesday, calls for major infra-structuring in the sectors of energy, water production, sewage and residual water treatment. These investments, estimated at some 16,000 euros, are hoped to cover the needs of the tourist enterprises located in Boa Vista’s integrated tourist development zones, as well as those of the population of the entire island.

Investments will also be made in the construction of a road linking Boa Vista International Airport to the Santa Mónica and Lacacão zone and the rehabilitation of Sal Rei sea port in order to respond to the tourist development needs over the next six years. Work on these projects is expected to absorb some 13 million euros in investments.

The protocol also calls for the construction of housing units, the creation of a fund aimed at promoting income- and employment-generating initiatives and the infra-structuring of 450 hectares of land for tourism-related real-estate projects.

Also included in the protocol are investments in tourist infrastructures, such as the construction of a five-star hotel with two thousand rooms by the RIU business group, and another 500-room luxury hotel. The two hotels in question are budgeted at 150 million euros, and the RIU hotel alone is expected to guarantee 152,000 tourists a year and 15 international flights per week, as well as the creation of 1,389 direct job posts and more than 3,000 indirect jobs.

These investments, according to Serra, who until last year was Cape Verde’s Minister of Finances and Public Administration, will help make quality tourism on the island of Boa Vista viable: “We’ll have better Access to the integrated tourist development zones and development of the south of the island, not to mention the integration of the population in the development of the tourist industry on the island. Because we don’t want to build hotels only to have shanties and ghettoes alongside them.”

The manager of the BUCAN consortium, Francisco Ufano, also stressed the importance of “not marginalizing the population” with regards to tourist development, and guarantees that the group will continue to collaborate in the progress of Cape Verde.

Source: A Semana