Dear Friends,

As you know, Hurricane Mitch, the fourth strongest hurricane ever measured in the Atlantic Basin, and the most destructive hurricane in 200 years in the Atlantic, recently paid Honduras a visit.

Our country has sustained great demage. At this point, we know of about 7,000 dead and perhaps 20% of our population homeless. Our agriculture industry has been decimated. And, we have lost about 94 bridges.

Through these difficult times, the tourism industry has worked hard with the rest of our people to save lives, provide shelter for people, and to help deliver necessities to the hardest hit places. Many of the people you know and have worked with in the past have been unsung heros, opening their lodging facilities as shelter, and using their resources and expertise to help Honduras rise above this catastrophe.

In spite of the enormity of Mitch´s impact on Honduras, much of the Bay Islands dive industry came through the storm relatively undemaged. The lodging and diving businesses on Roatan and Utila survived with relatively little damaged. Most are ready to receive and serve visitors now.

We also have good news about the reef. The first surveys on the south side of Roatan indicated that our famous wall is in good shape. There is some damage in the shallow waters close to shore to elkhorn and staghorn corals.

Surveys are underway on the north side of Roatan, around Guanaja. Early indications are that our precious underwater world survived much better than any of us dreamed possible. We have international teams on their way to perform detailed surveys- but the bottom line is that our reef- the basis for our mutual tourism economy-came through Mitch in good shape.

A more sobering note regards the island of Guanaja itself. Hurricane Mitch stalled with its eye wall over Guanaja for 39 hours. Winds were rcorded up to 273 mph of the island. All human build infrastructure was damaged; our famous resorts were partially damaged. Many people lost homes. Amazingly, only 9 people were killed. And the island was stripped of greenery, leaving a desert island look.

Our dive tourism industry is working fast and hard to be ready to serve your visitors. The islands of Roatan and Utila are serving visitor now. And, at the same time, repairs are underway to the relatively minor damages on those islands. Be assured that we would not be encouraging visitors to Roatan and Utila unless we are confident that we are prepared to deliver a top quality experience- and we are! We are putting our world class reputation on the line in encouraging visitors and are fully confident that your patrons will not go home disappointed.

The resorts on Guanaja are working hard to recover. Posada del Sol promises to reopen before Christmas, although at a less than before level. The resort expects to be "better than before Mitch" by spring. Baymam Bay Club is also rebuilding, and expects to reopen in December with a top quality product on a smaller scale. The other dive and visitor related businesses on the island are rebuilding and reopen as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Tourism and the Honduras Institute of Tourism have developed a proactive approach in response to the situation resulting from Hurricane Mitch.

First, a team from Egret Communications was brought in to help build and execute a rapid response tourism plan. Egret Communications played a significant role in helping rebuild and grow tourism after the fires in Yellowstone in 1988.

Under that plan, we will work hard to secure up to date and accurate information and quickly get it ot you, our international tourism partners and friends. We´ll pass that information to you in a timely manner through mailings like this one.

We will also establish a web site at hurricane mitch that will be updated as often as we have new information.

We will bring in writers, video crews, and photographers to document the many beautiful things that Honduras still has to share with visitors after Mitch. We´ll show them, so they can communicate with our mutual patrons that Honduras has a quality tourism experience that we can deliver now!

At the same time, we are committed to helping you. If there are connections we can help you make with specific toursm businesses, please let us be of assistance. If there is information that we can provide or research for you regarding the status of resources or tourism products, we´ll do our best to do so promptly.

We know that many of you have friends here in the Honduras tourism industry, and that you may be concerned for their welfare. If there are ways we can help you find people, or pass messages, please let us try.

At the same time, know that there is a great deal to do here. The Ministry and the Tourism Institute are helping host the international press covering Mitch related stories. We have taken on the responsibility of relief and resconstruction for the Bay Islands. So, we are focusing in many directions at one time.

We are committed to helping the Honduras Tourism Industry recover its losses and build an exciting future. We hope you´ll continue to partner with Honduras tourism businesses and that we can build a rewarding future together

Thank you.