Cuba will prepare personnel for the tourist sector of Honduras in accordance with a cooperation agreement signed recently, informed sources from both countries.
The minister of Tourism for Honduras, Ricardo Martinez, said he signed the agreement with the Cuban representative Manuel Marrero on October 27th during a visit from Honduras to La Habana.
The agreement establishes that instructors from the School for Hotel and Tourism (FORMATUR) from Cuba will travel to Honduras to qualify personnel in the tourist industry.
Cuba also made a formal dedication to Honduras, particularly to the garifuna culture, from the Caribbean Cultural Festival that is celebrated in July of 2009.
This cooperation agreement will be very beneficial to Honduras because tourism in Cuba has reached an exemplary improvement in all the Caribbean.
FORMATUR counts with 16 formation centers and 900 instructors the levels of preparation are from Basic to postgraduate.
The president from the National Chamber of Tourism in Honduras (CANATURH), who integrated the mission held in Cuba the previous week said, this agreement, is expected to start running on the first trimester of 2008.
CANATURH will give priority to personnel such as waiters, cooks and maids to start of with the training program on basic level.
The FORMATUR will make a diagnosis in collaboration with Honduran authorities and local businesses to outline the training programs and select the personnel that will participate in these.
The Cuba ambassador in Honduras, Juan Carlos Hernández, emphasized that this agreement is very beneficial for both countries and will contribute to promote the regional integration in the tourism sector which is the main line of our economy.
The diplomat also said that the most important areas of the bilateral agreement defined by the Mixed Intergovernmental Commission is our tourism
Cuba receives over 2,000 million dollars annually from tourism, meanwhile Honduras receives a million tourist and will receive around 500 million dollars this year.
The president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was in Cuba the 9th and 10th of this past October on the first official visit of a Honduran governor to this Caribbean country, to impulse the bilateral cooperation.
Honduras and Cuba reestablished diplomat relations in 2002, after being suspended since 1961 by the expulsion of the Inter-American System from the island.
