In the tourist town of Santa Lucia, small and medium-sized businesses have begun to accept Bitcoin payments.
Honduras has launched a project called Bitcoin Valley, Reuters reports. As part of the project, more than 60 local businesses in Santa Lucia are implementing the ability to pay for their goods and services via BTC.
The Bitcoin Valley is a joint initiative of Blockchain Honduras, the Coincaex crypto exchange, the Technological University of Honduras, and Santa Lucia’s municipal government.
The Bitcoin Valley area covers the entire city of Santa Lucia, which lies in the mountains 20 minutes from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. There are plans to expand the number of enterprises and the geography of the project, which aims to develop crypto tourism in the region.
Earlier, the authorities of Honduras announced the creation of a special economic zone Próspera ZEDE on the island of Roatán in the western Caribbean. In this zone, they planned to legalize Bitcoin as an official means of payment. However, these plans are still under development.
A policy to attract crypto tourists is also underway in neighboring El Salvador, which has officially adopted BTC as legal tender at the state level. The Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte is very popular among travelers. Gibraltar also intends to attract crypto tourists, where several major franchises have begun accepting BTC payments through the Lightning Network. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has announced the issuance of a special cryptocurrency for tourists to attract wealthy community members to the region, but there is no information about the practical implementation of the project.
