Promotional Video of Ecuador doesn’t shows Guayaquil

“Yo descubrí cómo amar la vida en Ecuador” (I discovered how to love life in Ecuador)

The promotional video called “Yo descubrí cómo amar la vida en Ecuador” (I discovered how to love life in Ecuador), released by the Ecuador 2012 International Campaign of the Ministry of Tourism, summarizes the tourist attractions of the country with images of Quito, Galapagos, Otavalo, the East, among other locations.

 However, notably absent are the pictures of Guayaquil city, the bigest city in the country, with more than 2.5 million inhabitants.

Nicolas Romero, CEO of the Airport Authority of Guayaquil, recalls that during a trip abroad, screens announced the campaign on the plane. Romero acknowledges it was “a beautiful documentary” highlighting the mountains, the Interandin region, and the forest, culminated with the phrase “This is Ecuador”, but “there was nothing of Guayaquil”.

“It is unfair that Guayaquil isn’t in this video. With my taxes they sold me Quito instead of my city,” says Romero.

Furthermore, Louis Hanna President of the Federation of Chambers of Tourism of Ecuador expressed its concern to Luis Falconi, Secretary of Tourism in charge.

“He said he will rectify (…) and I hope he will. We must demand that there be genuine national advertising.” Hanna did not disclose further details of the meeting. “I did not ask for an explanation neither he gave one to me,” he said.

“This city deserves all the attention, is in full regeneration. I get the impression that Guayaquil is being promoted itself with all that it has,” said Gino Luzi, president of the Hotel Association of Guayas, who says not having seen the video.

On the website of the Ministry of Tourism was announced the second phase of the campaign “I discovered in Ecuador”. The first phase, which began in 2011, covered the markets of Germany, UK, Canada and USA In the second, diffusion is planned in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru and Colombia.