El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach to receive over $200 million in infrastructure investments 

El Zonte, a beach in El Salvador that has been renamed “Bitcoin Beach” as a result of its acceptance of the cryptocurrency, will get infrastructure upgrades as part of a strategic plan that will be implemented by the government of El Salvador.

Given the beach’s adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) to develop a circular economy in the region, the beach has gained iconic status. These expenditures will go toward the construction of brand-new amenities to enhance the vacation experience for tourists to the destination.

In relation to the carrying out of these investments, President Nayib Bukele made the following statement on August 26:

“El Zonte for many is known as Bitcoin Beach; we are going to fix an area of 15,000 square meters, where there will be a shopping center, parking, beach club, treatment plant, to revitalize the area.”

In addition to the La Libertad region, the Surf City beach, commonly known as El Tunco, will also profit from these renovations. Bukele said the investment amounts to more than $203 million, which includes cycle paths, a new drainage system, pedestrian crossings, and 14 bridges.

“This year we will expand 21 kilometers of the Littoral Road to four lanes. And we will also do it with hydraulic concrete, which is more expensive than asphalt, but lasts much longer,” he announced.

Bitcoin’s role in tourism

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This is part of the second phase of the Surf City project, which intends to bring tourism-enhancing strategic initiatives to the region. These investments are in keeping with what the government has said in the past regarding the role that Bitcoin and surf have had in the expansion of national tourism, and this alignment makes this set of investments consistent.

A recent report confirmed that El Salvador was one of the countries on the list of nations that had already returned their profits from tourism to the levels they had been at before the pandemic. Bukele ascribed this to three factors: the ongoing war against gangs in the nation, the growth of the surf industry, and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Only a handful of countries have been able to recover its tourism to pre pandemic levels.

And that’s international tourism, so the reasons behind it are mostly #Bitcoin and surf 🤙🏼

But internal tourism is growing even more, mainly because of our crackdown on gangs. https://t.co/mBbarohmoZpic.twitter.com/Iy6mFliicJ
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) August 6, 2022

Other officials in the government of El Salvador have also lauded Bitcoin for its role as a driving force behind the increase in tourism that has occurred in this year. Morena Valdez, who is the minister of tourism in El Salvador, indicated in April that the use of Bitcoin as legal money has contributed to the industry’s growth by 30%.