Cruzeros al rescate.

• Author: Hoag, Christina
• Position: La Isla Margarita, Venezuela - TT: Cruisin' to the Rescue. - TA: Margarita Island, Venezuela

In their chapters on Venezuelan resort Margarita Island, guidebooks urge tourists to avoid the seedy waterfront of the island's main city, Porlamar. Strewn with rubbish and unsavory hotels, the docks have long been neglected, while glitzy high rises go up down the beach.

Now a group of local investors is starting a US$100 million cleanup. The Puerto de la Mar project aims to lure 400,000 free-spending tourists a year from mainly cruise ships. But there's more. "It's not simply a cruise port," says developer Folco Riccio. "It's going to rescue Porlamar."

Riccio expects the port--remade into a mail, five-star hotel, casino, cinema and marina by 2001--to bring in $64 million a year through the shops and day tours that will take tourists to other parts of Venezuela by bus, boat or helicopter. Negotiations are under way with five well-known hotel chains and cruise...