Iberia launches flights to El Salvador
Iberia Airline
BTN.com | From 2 October 2010, Iberia will start flying between San Salvador and Madrid, becoming the first European airline to connect both cities. The four new weekly flights (on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) will also allow travellers to connect to other Central American cities with TACA, and to other European cities from Madrid with Iberia.
Thanks to a code-sharing agreement with TACA Airlines, passengers will be able to fly onward to (or from) other Central American cities. The region, which includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, markets itself as a multi-destination under the umbrella brand “Central America, so small… so great” since 2002.
One of the region’s main attractions is its rich Maya heritage, with major sites which are more than 3000 years old in Belize (Caracol), El Salvador (Joya de Ceren), Guatemala (Copan) and Honduras (Tikal). The region’s cultural offering also includes colonial cities like Antigua in Guatemala, Leon and Granada in Nicaragua, or Portobelo and the Old Quarter of Panama City in Panama, and the opportunity to meet indigenous communities like the kuna and embera in Panama or the garífuna in Belize and Honduras.
Central America boasts 7% of the world’s biodiversity, with Costa Rica considered amongst the top 20 countries with the highest biodiversity in the world, and a major ecotourism destination. Other key natural assets are the region’s pristine beaches and the world’s second largest barrier reef flanking Belize and Honduras.
Modern cities such as San Salvador and Panama City are increasingly popular destinations for meetings and incentives, and there are 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites in the region.
Besides, new products have been developed to promote the whole region, such as the Colonial Cities and Volcanoes Trail. Stretching for 1000km through the region, the trail connects all the main colonial cities and offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy a variety of adventure sports and other outdoor pursuits on the many volcanoes along the way.
Thanks to better flight connections and promotional efforts, the number of visitors to Central America increased by 6% in the first two months of 2010, compared to the same period last year, including 151,802 European tourists.
