Water and Electricity: A Tender Seeking to Align Interests in Maximizing Tourism on Margarita Island
The investor who offers to contribute the most—above a minimum of US$ 700 million—in investments designed to help supply electricity and water to Margarita Island will receive, in exchange, a 3% share of all the island's tourism revenue for a period of 35 years.
Undoubtedly, the winner will have a clear vested interest in ensuring that the investments they make prove beneficial to the island—and, as an added bonus, will become a major promoter of that tourism.
Google AI: Looking at historical figures, if the Margarita Island had a continuous supply of electricity and water, how much—in millions of US dollars—could all its tourism revenues be projected to amount to?
Google AI answers:
No local authority or economist has published an exact, isolated dollar figure projecting future revenuebased specifically on a continuous utility supply. However, looking at the island’s historical economic peak—when utilities were stable and infrastructure functioned smoothly—provides a clear baseline for what full restoration could unlock.
Historically, during its peak in the 1990s and early 2000s, Margarita Island regularly attracted between 3 million and 4 million visitors annually. Given a modern global tourism spending context, here is how that baseline maps out to projected revenues:
Revenue Breakdown Under Optimal Conditions
If infrastructure (electricity and water) were fully functional, allowing the island to reactivate its dormant hotel capacity and match its historical volume, projected annual revenue could easily exceed $1.5 billion to $3 billion USD. This is estimated using historical visitor benchmarks coupled with current spending dynamics:
Domestic Tourism ~2.5 to 3.5 million visitors
International Tourism ~500,000+ visitors (previously 40% of traffic)
Total Projected Tourism 3M – 4M Visitors
Modern Spending Profile:
Domestic Tourism Avg : $200 – $400 per trip
International Tourism Avg. $1,500 – $3,000
(multi-day all-inclusive/tours)
Projected Annual Revenue:
Domestic Tourism $500 million – $1.4 billion
International Tourism $750 million – $1.5 billion
Total Projected $1.25 Billion – $2.9 Billion
Why Restoring Utilities Multiplies Current Numbers
Currently, the island's capacity is artificially capped due to structural bottlenecks:
Slashed Overhead Costs: At present, operational hotels must spend heavily on private water trucks and high-volume diesel generators to maintain their lights and air conditioning. Eliminating these operational burdens would immediately increase profit margins, allowing companies to lower prices and capture broader market volume.
Unlocking Dormant Capacity: Regional tourism chambers estimate that nearly half of the island's total room capacity and roughly 60% of commercial tourism businesses have shut down over the years due to utility constraints. A continuous grid supply would allow these closed resorts to reopen. [1]
The Return of International Hubs: Airlines like Copa Airlines and Wingo have begun rebuilding direct routes to Porlamar, but a fully reliable infrastructure is the missing ingredient required to attract high-spending European and North American charter flights back to the island en masse.
My note: Let your imagination flow. What if pension funds of developed nations invested in this and told their pensioners to be: "Travel to the beautiful Island of Margarita and help promote other nations’ tourism to it. With that your pension fund will earn more money, so as to afford paying your pensions.”
