Lucy Valenti is the director of GEPROTUR (Tourist Projects Management), an institution in charge of arranging, holding and coordinating tourist promotion for the sake of Central America's benefit as part of the Central American Integration

Lucy, explain briefly to us what your do for the Central American region. We're in charge of a regional office headquartered in Managua (Nicaragua) that coordinates all integration efforts for Central America as far as tourist promotion and the development of the region's tourist product are concerned. Right now, we're deeply involved in the launching of a new trademark for Central America as a multi-destination offer under the motto Central America, So Small, So Large. We've pieced together an action plan to start out the positioning of this new regional brand in a way that could grow to change the image of Central America as a tourist destination in the eyes of the world, and especially in Europe, the sending market we'll get cracking with.

What handicaps is this launching going through?

One of the biggest snags hit by the Central American region is precisely a problem of image, an area marred for too long by political mishaps and military clashes. It's been 12 years since war came to a close in Central America, yet just a handful of people remembers that and still believes our region is mired in conflicts, something that's not true. On the other hand, the press barely focuses on something other than the natural disasters we've confronted in the region, like for example hurricane Mitch. Those are the news usually broken to the public about Central America. And we want to change that because, like any other region in the world, Central America is hit by natural disasters, but it also rebounds and features countless attractions people don't know about. Now with this new regional trademark, we intend to showcase those things about Central America people are unaware of. This is a region that has a lot to offer.

Lucy, you were telling me you're trying to unveil a new trademark. For the past four years, I've been hearing that you're going to launch a new brand with a new project, and that you'll also unfurl some promotional campaigns with that aim in mind. But there's no such thing as a new trademark, yet. Are you going to get the show on the road this year?

Last year, we were working with THR –a Spanish company based in Barcelona and specialized in the development of new trademarks. Ours was officially passed by the Council of Ministers last December. The trademark is Central America and the positioning slogan reads: Central America, So Small, So Large. Also in December, an action plan for this trademark was approved and we got it started in FITUR, regardless of the fact that we haven't launched it officially yet. Its official debut will come as soon as we gather all the collateral promotional information we need to print out, and we're planning to do it within the framework of the World Travel Market in London. We still have a number of activities ahead of us that are also contained in the action plan for this year, ranging from the printout of all those materials to the introduction of the new trademark to Central America. It's paramount for the Central American leisure industry to be aware of this new trademark and use it, too. This is the result of our common efforts. We'll pay a visit to each and every country in the region and we'll meet there with all tourism entrepreneurs. At the same time, we'll wrap up all photographic and filming works in order to have the promotional materials ready. Some familiarization trips for both journalists and wholesalers will also be arranged, as well as workshops in Europe for the presentation of the new trademark.

In which European countries are you planning to do the workshops and when?

In seven European cities from Spain, Germany, England, France, Italy and a Nordic country.

Will that be in 2002 or in 2003?

In the second half of the year, to close November with the official launch at the London tradeshow.

I think you've given us a pretty important overall view of what your job is all about. Now, we'd like to start over with a different kind of interview, a more humane and personal kind of interview. I guess one interesting topic to deal with is women as directors, promoters, tourist manageresses in some countries, something that does apply to your particular case, I mean, in more than country. How do you combine those responsibilities with the chores that pile up on a housewife, a mother and a spouse?

That's really a tough task. Sometimes I've thought it's a titanic endeavor because having the kind of responsibility I have in my job –living virtually out of a suitcase- and at the same time care for your family, your home, your husband, is no cakewalk at all. You simply have to organize your time. On the other hand, it's equally important to have a husband by your side who understands and lets a woman like me do her professional job. It'll be extremely hard –I'd say almost impossible- to have a husband who doesn't allow his wife to go travelling, relating to people in and out of the country in some functions where sometimes he's a companion and some other times he's got to stay home. In a word, that takes a lot of understanding, communication and mutual trust in your relationship. The heart of the matter is that if you're a married woman with children, you've got to count on your husband's support. Wouldn't that be the case, I'll be single by now. In the same breath, timing is key. I myself, every time I have to go abroad, I have to jot down everything my kids must do while I'm away. It's my job to write down a schedule of all the things they must do for me to leave with peace of mind. It's also important to have a husband at home because then I rest assured my children are well taken care of.

As to you colleagues, your working peers, those who could be jealous of having a woman leading the pack and holding down a job they could have longed for, how's that relationship actually like?

I've never had that kind of problem. I'm very happy and pleased with the loving care and the kind of respect I've been able to establish with my peers, not only in Nicaragua, but also in the rest of Central America. I have superb working relations with the people I relate to and I more frequently deal with. This is key for the kind of job I hold down that embraces seven countries. It's a job in which I relate to a lot of people. Without trust and friendship, it'd be extremely hard to carry on with a project like this that takes so much consensus. We don't work with a majority of votes or ballots, but with consensus. This takes an ability to relate to people, to communicate with people and to generate trustworthiness among people you work with. I feel very pleased in that respect. Despite the fact that the highest officials are the Ministers of Tourism –who are the ones making decisions at the end of the day- the team I work with is usually made up of marketing directors from the national tourism institutes, the technicians who map out the proposals with me to be okayed by the ministers later on. This team is marked by an excellent working relationship. There's no such thing as jealousy in it, in part because I've made sure there's no confusion whatsoever between domestic and regional interests. I don't poke my nose into national issues, but I just take care of regional interests and that's it.

To wrap things up, we'd like to know if you've got any curious anecdote about these hardworking years in the world of tourism that you'd like to share with us.

There're some funny, even “spicy” anecdotes given the differences in the language spoken in every country or due to the peculiarities of the world and the Latin character. There's also a somewhat curious side in this because I entered the realm of tourism on the other side of the world, in another continent. I lived in the Seychelles Islands for ten long years and I got into tourism due to a relation my in-laws had. My mother-in-law used to run one of the Seychelles' tour operators. Then, I kept on working in that sector after I returned to Nicaragua. It's a real conspicuous anecdote because only a bunch of people in my country knew the Seychelles Islands, and I was the very first Nicaraguan to travel there. And a similar situation happens in Central America. Tourism is also a fledgling industry in Nicaragua, it made its break back in the 1990s, and honestly enough, there were very few people in Nicaragua with experience in that sector when I turned back to the country. The fact that I'd been in Seychelles and that I hooked myself up to a world-known destination in Europe, gave me the experience I now have to serve both my homeland and my region.