Several businesses in the tourist town of Santa Lucia are now accepting
Bitcoin payments in the hopes it can spur tourism spending.
A small tourist town in Honduras has begun accepting Bitcoin payments
as part of the “Bitcoin Valley” initiative designed to increase tourism
revenue across 60 local businesses.
Some locals of Santa Lucia,
like shopping mall owner Cesar Andino, expect the initiative to open up
more opportunities for shops in the area and “attract more people who
want to use this currency,” according to a report from Honduran news outlet La Prensa. Andino added:
“Accepting
Bitcoin will allow us to open another market and win more customers. We
have to globalize. We cannot close ourselves off from technology, and
we cannot be left behind when other countries are already doing it.”
The program started on July 28, allowing patrons of local area shops to pay with United States dollars, Honduran Lempira, or Bitcoin (BTC).
Santa
Lucia’s municipal government developed the Bitcoin Valley program in
conjunction with the Coincaex crypto exchange, Blockchain Honduras, and
the Technological University of Honduras.
Coincaex is providing
the equipment and services needed to perform crypto payments, while
Blockchain Honduras is providing education on the use of crypto wallets.
Honduras launches 'Bitcoin Valley'
— Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) July 29, 2022
Over 60 businesses have adopted #bitcoin in the small town of Santa Lucia. They will get training in the new technology and how to market their products and services.https://t.co/O8nh543ehG
La Prensa explained that although customers can pay for goods and services in BTC,
they will be sending the coins to Coincaex exchange. The exchange then
instantly sends the value of the BTC in Lempira to the merchant to help
them avoid loss from price volatility. Therefore, business owners do not
directly receive BTC as payment under this scheme.
Local business
owners hope the Bitcoin Valley will re-spark tourism spending in the
tropical coastal country after taking a major hit during the COVID-19
pandemic. Honduras enjoyed about $556 million in annual tourism spending
in 2019 before plummeting more than 66% in 2020 to $189 million
according to data from Macrotrends, a global economic tracker.
Honduras
joins a small handful of countries in the region that have launched
similar programs for people to legally pay for goods and services with
cryptocurrency.
Related: Morgan Stanley encourages investors to buy battered El Salvador eurobonds
El Salvador famously adopted BTC as legal tender in 2021 and rolled out a nation-wide effort to educate residents on its utility. It has launched a similar ‘Bitcoin Beach’ tourist attraction at the town of El Zonte.
Guatemala has its ‘Bitcoin Lake’ initiative at tourism sites around Lake Atitlan
in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Mayor Cesar Piedrasanta of Panajachel in
the region has also been mining BTC with energy that he says would
otherwise be unused and wasted.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/honduras-attracts-crypto-investor-tourists-with-bitcoin-valley
