Starting July 15th, the US TV series Survivor will start filming its new season in remote areas around San Jan Del Sur. This program, which airs to about 13 million households in the US and gets rebroadcast in 154 countries will have a huge impact on Nicaragua’s international image and will make Nicaragua a household name. There are already about 250 production members from the show filling up all the hotels in SJDS, although word is that they work six days a week, twelve hours a day. The show will create a potential tourism boom and will of course impact the economy for the next six months, if not more. The small fishing town of Ostional is of course South of SJDS, so look for scenes shot at “our beach.”
Another interesting Nicaraguan story… is that Ometepe Island was named an UNESCO biosphere reserve this week which will give the island (with two volcanoes, one active, one inactive) a greater degree of environmental protection. The island will be promoted as a new destination for bird-watchers.
Lets hope both of these tourism boosting events attract an ecologically minded crowd of travellers and that Nicaragua benefits in positive ways from this latest exposure.