Above: Leonidas Rosa Bautista, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Honduras to the OAS and Alfonso Quiñónez, OAS Secretary for External Relations (OAS Photo/Maria Patricia Leiva)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Honduras will be hosting the 21st Inter-American Congress of Ministers and High Authorities of Tourism next month.

Honduras and the Organization of American States signed an agreement last week officially designating San Pedro Sula as the site of the conference, which will be held on Sept. 5 and 6.

OAS Secretary for External Relations, Alfonso Quiñonez, said the event was “an important forum for dialogue to stimulate this important activity in the Americas, as well as promoting the exchange of experiences and best practices to foster greater hemispheric cooperation.”

Leonidas Rosa Bautista said tourism “has become not only an important source of resources and an area with which many of our partner countries associate the issue of development but it has also become a mission of cultural transformation and cultural communication.”

Today, he said, the tourism industry is “closely associated with regional identity, the democratic spirit, equality, mutual respect, respect for human rights, harmony with natural resources and the environment and personal development.”

Representatives of the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Panama, and Guatemala were present at the signing ceremony in Washington.