Meet the local experts: Yobani P.

Yobani Peraza from Xukpi Tours Copan is a travel industry veteran with more than 25 years of hands-on experience as a specialty tour guide and tour conductor. Yobani is based in Copan Ruinas but runs trip itineraries nationally; and even multi-country trips combining Honduras with Guatemala or El Salvador. When he is not traveling with guests, he provides consulting advice and training to other tourism industry entrepreneurs.  His areas of expertise include destination planning, product development, heritage interpretation, and training.  Yobani has been a key stakeholder in making tour guiding in Honduras a profession. As a matter of fact, in the last 15 years Yobani has trained local tour guides in many places across Honduras including: Lake Yojoa, La Esperanza, Gracias, La Moskitia, Siguatepeque, Choluteca, Comayagua, Roatan, and Atlantida.

the Honduras stand in BirdFair '17

Accredited by the Honduras Institute of Tourism as a national tour guide, his specialties are birding and Mayan culture. He also holds a Bachelor in Tourism from the Universidad Tecnologica de Honduras, and is a founding member of the Copan Tour Guide Association.

He recently participated in BirdFair 2017 in the United Kingdom promoting Honduras as a birding destination. Honduras is working hard to position itself as a birding destination, and has gathered together different stakeholders to develop a strategy to pursue that segment.

The diversity of ecosystems is of the advantages that Honduras offers this specialty travel segment. Approximately 770 different species of birds have been identified in Honduras, including resident and migratory species.  Due to its location in the southernmost fringe of the migratory route for North American species, this is a birder's paradise!

Choose Honduras is very excited to be working with Yobani and the Xukpi Tours Copan team as their main tour guide service provider in the Copan Valley, and transportation supplier nationwide.

Visit Xukpi Tours Copan's Facebook page here:  Xukpi Tours Copan

Plan your trip with us!

How can we help you plan your next memorable adventure?

In short: get in touch with us, and let us know that you are interested in planning a trip.  We will follow-up with you to get more information in order to prepare a custom trip itinerary for you.

How does Choose Honduras work?  We are not a typical tour operator, in fact we don't see ourselves as a tour operator, we are a custom travel planning platform that knows the destination very well, and has a rich network of local contacts in each destination that we work with across Honduras.  This way, we can provide you with the best travel experience.

Our local experts are go-getters, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and community groups.  They are in many cases freelance entrepreneurs or one-person operations.  They are very experienced in the field, know the destination extremely well, and are great at providing amazing experiences to our travelers.  They spend so much time in the field, taking care of the customers, that it is difficult for them to actively market their services and manage the booking process.  Choose Honduras fills that gap! 

We create multi-day trip itineraries and bundle it so that you can have a stress free trip.  You don't have to separately contact a guide in Copan, a boat captain in Tela, a hiking guide in Rio Cangrejal, a birding guide in Lake Yojoa; arrange a pickup from San Pedro Sula airport, or wander around Marcala looking for the fantastic coffee farm; we do it for you!  Our business model is based on profit-sharing with the local entrepreneurs, that way everyone wins.  

As part of our commitment to Social Responsibility we assist local entrepreneurs in the process of identifying and fine-tuning authentic and unique travel experiences.  We do not charge them a fee for this support, nor do we force them to offer it exclusively to us.  We want them to work with us because it is beneficial to them, not because they are forced by a contract; and we want them to be motivated so that they will exceed your expectations during the trip. Win-Win-Win.

If you want to plan a trip with us, fill out the contact form on our website, send us a message on Facebook, or e-mail us at info@choosehonduras.com, and let us know what your travel interest are, how much time do you have for your trip, the dates you are looking to travel, and we will follow-up with you with a tentative trip itinerary.  With your input, we will fine-tune the itinerary, and provide you with a price quote.  We do not charge a fee to prepare your itinerary, if you decide not to book with us, you don't pay us anything.

Get in touch with us HERE!

Travel can, and should, be a win-win activity

The travel industry is at a pivotal crossroads that will define its future. Suppliers, sellers and travelers all have a significant role in making the future of travel a sustainable success. The traveler should be able to enjoy an authentic experience, with minimal impacts on the natural and cultural landscape, while maximizing the positive economic benefits for the local service providers and the host communities.  This is the essence of being a responsible traveler. 

Traveling responsibly should be every traveler’s goal, and part of that commitment is purchasing services from travel companies, inbound tour operators, local tour guides, and local service providers that are committed to sustainability.  This commitment to sustainability must focus on the 3 pillars: cultural, environmental, and socio-economic.

There is an effort in many parts of the world to assist local entrepreneurs and organized community groups in planning and developing tourism services as a means to supplement family incomes.  This is especially important in communities dependent on farming, fishing and other natural resources, that are being directly influenced and affected by climate change. After tourism activities are developed, and external support has ended, many local service providers have difficulty accessing markets, especially international travelers.  The reasons include: limited marketing expertise, limited internet access, time constraints, language barriers, and many others.

In an effort to provide market access to local tourism service providers operating in Honduras, a local start-up, Honduras Turismo y Marketing SA, is developing a multi-channel marketing platform to address the market access gap.  The company is launching the platform under the choose Honduras brand.    LIKE us on Facebook here  

The mission is to connect responsible-minded travelers, interested in enjoying authentic travel experiences, with local entrepreneurs, small businesses, and organized community groups, committed to sustainable tourism and management practices.  This model of shared responsibilities and benefits can prove to be a win-win relationship for all parties involved.

Welcome to the Choose Honduras blog

Hello and welcome to the Choose Honduras blog.  We are a multi-channel marketing platform designed to market, promote, and sell memorable travel experiences to Honduras.  Choose Honduras is owned and operated by Honduras Turismo y Marketing SA, a Honduran private company dedicated to tourism planning, marketing, and training.  

Choose Honduras has the vision to connect responsible-minded travelers with local entrepreneurs, and organized community groups that share our commitment to sustainable tourism practices.  We carefully research and select our local partners, and together with them, develop trip itineraries that provide memorable travel experiences that are safe, reliable, and high quality.

Choose Honduras encourages sustainable and responsible tourism values and management practices from all the stakeholders in its services value chain; that includes suppliers, partners, and travelers.  In the process Choose Honduras works with, and establishes partnerships with local entrepreneurs, micro & small enterprises, and organized community groups currently involved in, or interested in, developing a tourism experience.  Choose Honduras provides support to local tourism service providers in all business stages including: current situation analysis, strategic planning, business planning, product concept & design, marketing, and commercialization. Once we have identified a local partner we develop travel itineraries that are authentic, and offer experiences off the beaten path, and with a high degree of customization.  We don't sell off-the-rack "tour packages", nor do we bundle you with a bunch of other travelers.  Instead, we create a travel itinerary based on your specific interests and time availability.

If you want to learn more about our company, or are interested in planning a trip to Honduras, the yet to be discovered gem in Central America, contact us at:  info@choosehonduras.com

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