By H.E. Mr. Agustín Vásquez Gómez, Ambassador of El Salvador to the Netherlands.
The International Surfing Association (ISA) announced by mid January 2020 that El Salvador has been chosen as host of the 2020 ISA World Surfing Games, to take place on May 9 – 17 of this year. Twelve Olympic Qualifiers will be determined, making 2020 a historic edition of the event.
ISA President Fernando Aguerre said, “The ISA World Surfing Games will bring an unprecedented level of global attention to the country and the nearly unlimited world-class resource that is its year-round waves.
Olympic dreams will be fulfilled, creating a highly anticipated level of world-class surfing, camaraderie, and excitement…. We look forward to building momentum towards Tokyo 2020, displaying the youthful, high-performance values of our sport that will contribute to the great success of the Games.”
The historic edition of 2020 ISA World Surfing Games are one of the jewels of the crown within “Surf City El Salvador” that is a leading initiative that President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele set at the beginning of his mandate in June 2019, as one of the main anchors to promote tourism, development and public works, along with connectivity and security, everything within an ideal environment, as part of an integral approach to change radically the social and economic conditions of the country and its offer to the world.
The objective of the initiative is to position El Salvador as one of the main tourist destinations of the surf sport and industry internationally. Due to the privileged location in the heart of the Americas, Salvadoran beaches are among the top ten in the world for practicing surfing.
Some of the potentialities that Salvadoran beaches offers are the quality of the waves, the water temperature, tropical climate, proximity to many more tourist destinations with a variety of gastronomy, no sharks and friendly and helpful people.
President Nayib Bukele expressed his pride that El Salvador “will always be remembered and associated with the historic recognition of surf as an Olympic sport”, adding that this event “will be the window to show the world-class waves and destination that Surf City El Salvador offers. El Salvador is open and ready to embrace new ideas, challenges and innovation. This Olympic qualifying event is a milestone for Surf City El Salvador and we are certain it will contribute to the consolidation of our beautiful country as a premier destination for surfing.”
Surf City is one of El Salvador’s efforts that seek to strengthen sports and cultural diplomacy as instruments of international cohesion, as well as generator of opportunities for a Nation that has historically been linked to social and political phenomena that were not attractive to be considered as a tourist destination.
Now El Salvador is a place to discover and enjoy, and together with the recognition of International Authorities such as ISA, as Ambassador of El Salvador in the Netherlands, I invite European surfers and particularly the Dutch, to dare to enjoy some of the best waves in the world and the unbeatable warmth of our people.
