Investment in tourism continues apace in different parts of Nicaragua. A new $2 million boutique hotel is going up on the Masaya Highway just outside of the capital. Construction at the Gran Pacifica oceanfront project one hour west of Managua continues. In San Juan del Sur, the Pelican Eyes – Piedras y Olas complex recently joined forces with Paradise Developments and they have announced a new project called Marea Alta (High Tide). Designed to be a luxurious residential and hotel destination with world-class restaurants, it will have a tramway connecting the development on the hills overlooking the ocean with a seafront boardwalk. Just north of that tourism hotspot, the owners of another project, Cala Azul, have begun earthmoving work.
The famous coastal highway was in the news again, though it will still be a while before work actually begins and no one is holding their breath. The projected investment for 131 kilometers running north from the Costa Rican border is between 105 and 120 million dollars. It will likely be a toll road. Ten US cents per kilometer has been proposed.
Meanwhile, government roadway contracts are being executed and key stretches for tourism are in the process of being rehabilitated and upgraded, including the highway going west out of Granada and the stretch from the Pan-American Highway to San Juan del Sur.
Some have argued that the money for these highways would be better spent on roads to support agricultural production in the interior of the country. But with tourism having replaced coffee as the number one earner of foreign exchange (even with the currently high price for coffee), the economics speak for themselves. According to the government, the country earned $244.8 million from tourism, and that does not include the boosts to local economies from the construction of hotel projects.