Bitcoin surfer tourists flock to El SalvadorWhat is it?

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Tourists are flocking to El Salvador in record numbers, according to the country’s tourism minister.

The announcement comes as the Central American country steps up its public relations campaign to show the world that it is no longer a backwater plagued by hyper-violent street gangs, but rather a bitcoin and crypto haven. surf.

On Thursday, President Nayib Bukele, the country’s social media-savvy millennial leader, posted a cinematic video on Twitter announcing that El Salvador had just gone 365 days without a single homicide.

El Salvador is unquestionably the safest country in Latin America today, says a dramatic voice in the video.

AFP reported the figure was the total number of murder-free days since 2019 rather than consecutive days.

Tourism Minister Morena Valdez added on Twitter that the country had received one million visitors so far this year.

Until recently, El Salvador was largely unpopular on the gringo trail except with hardcore surfers. This is because it has repeatedly entered and exited lists of the most violent nations on the planet.

In 2015, with at least 6,640 murders, it was ranked the deadliest country in the Western Hemisphere.

But El Salvador made headlines in 2021 when it became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender. Its eccentric leader has gone on bitcoin buying sprees, and businesses must now accept cryptocurrency by law.

President Bukele has turned the tide in the country by launching a historic crackdown on notorious criminal groups in El Salvador. He in turn hopes to turn the country into a technology hub.

And Salvadorans seem pleased with the turnaround: killings are down and Bukele consistently does well in the polls.

But human rights groups have criticized his crime-fighting strategy, and institutions like the World Bank and IMF have criticized the Bitcoin idea.

The actual data is also hard to come by: no one other than the Salvadoran government knows how many murders have actually dropped or how much bitcoin the government owns.

Yet the impact of the Bitcoin and surf tourism campaign is undeniable. In November, travel guide giant Lonely Planet named El Salvador one of the 11 best countries to visit in 2023.

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