Labadee Resort in Haiti
In 2012, the country received 950,000 tourists mostly from cruise ships, and the industry generated US$200 million in 2012. In December 2012, the US State Department issued a travel warning about the country, noting that while thousands of American citizens safely visit Haiti each year, few foreign tourists had been victims of burglary, predominantly in the Port-au-Prince area.
Several hotels were opened in 2012, including a Best Western Premier,a five-star Royal Oasis hotel by Occidental Hotel and Resorts in Pétionville, a four-star Marriott hotel in the Turgeau area of Port-au-Prince and other new hotel developments in Port-au-Prince, Les Cayes, Cap-Haïtien and Jacmel.Other tourist destinations include Île-a-Vache, Camp-Perrin, Pic Macaya.
The Haitian Carnival has been one of the most popular carnivals in the Caribbean. In 2010, the government decided to stage the event in a different city outside of Port-au-Prince every year in an attempt to decentralize the country.The National Carnival usually held in one of the country's largest cities i.e., Port-au-Prince, Cap-Haïtien or Les Caye follows the also very popular Jacmel Carnival, which takes place a week earlier in February or March.
Haiti is the world's leading producer of vetiver, a root plant used to make luxury perfumes, essential oils and fragrances, providing for half the world's supply.Half of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector. Haiti relies upon imports for half its food needs and 80% of its rice. Haiti exports crops such as mangoes, cacao, coffee, papayas, mahogany nuts, spinach, and watercress.Agricultural products comprise 6% of all exports.In addition, local agricultural products include corn, beans, cassava, sweet potato, peanuts, pistachios, bananas, millet, pigeon peas, sugar cane, rice, sorghum, and wood.
Haitian cuisine.
Haitian cuisine originates from several culinary styles from the various historical ethnic groups that populated the western portion of the island of Hispaniola. Haitian cuisine is similar to the rest of the Latin-Caribbean the French and the Spanish-speaking countries of the Antilles, however it differs in several ways from its regional counterparts. While the cuisine is unpretentious and simple, the flavors are bold and spicy that demonstrate a primary influence of African culinary aesthetic, paired with a very French sophistication with notable derivatives coming from native Taíno and Spanish techniques. Though similar to other cooking styles in the region, it carries a uniqueness native to the country and an appeal to many visitors to the island. Haitians often use peppers and other strong flavorings.
Dishes tend to be seasoned liberally. Consequently Haitian cuisine is often moderately spicy. In the country, however, several foreign cuisines have been introduced. These include Levantine from Arab migration to Haiti. Rice and beans in several differing ways are eaten throughout the country regardless of location, becoming a sort of national dish. They form the staple diet, which consists of a lot of starch and is high in carbohydrates. Rural areas, with better access to agricultural products, have a larger variety of choices.
One such dish is mais moulu (mayi moulen), which is comparable to cornmeal that can be eaten with sauce pois , a bean sauce made from one of many types of beans such as kidney, pinto, chickpeas, or pigeon peas, known in some countries as gandules. Mais moulin can be eaten with fish, often red snapper, or alone depending on personal preference. Some of the many plants used in Haitian dishes include tomato, oregano, cabbage, avocado, bell peppers. A popular food is banane pesée (ban-nan'n peze), flattened plantain slices fried in cooking oil (known as tostones in the Spanish speaking Latin American countries). It is eaten both as a snack and as part of a meal is, often eaten with tassot or griot,which are deep-fried goat and pork respectively.
Traditionally, the food that Haitians eat on the independence day,1 January is Soup Joumou.Haiti is also known internationally for its rum. Rhum Barbancourt is one of the nation's exports and is regarded highly by international standards.
Haiti relies heavily on an oil alliance with Petrocaribe for much of its energy requirements. In recent years, Hydroelectric, Solar and wind energy have been explored as possible sustainable energy sources.
According to the 2015 CIA World Factbook, Haiti's main import partners are: Dominican Republic 35%, US 26.8%, Netherlands Antilles 8.7%, China 7% . Haiti's main export partner is the US 83.5% (est. 2013).Haiti had a trade deficit of US$3 billion in 2011, or 41% of GDP.
Law enforcement in Haiti is maintained primarily by police forces for each Department. The Direction Département de L’Ouest (DDO) in Port-au-Prince, is one of the six offices in the metropolitan area.
Haiti has consistently ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world on the Corruption Perceptions Index. It is estimated that President "Baby Doc" Duvalier, his wife Michelle, and their agents stole US$504 million from the country's treasury between 1971 and 1986.
Similarly, some media outlets alleged that millions were stolen by former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In March 2004, at the time of Aristide's being kidnapped, a BBC article wrote that the Bush administration State Department stated that Aristide had been involved in drug trafficking.The BBC also described pyramid schemes, in which Haitians lost hundreds of millions in 2002, as the "only real economic initiative" of the Aristide years.
Conversely, according to the 2013 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, murder rates in Haiti (10.2 per 100,000) are far below the regional average (26 per 100,000); less than 1/4 that of Jamaica (39.3 per 100,000) and nearly 1/2 that of the Dominican Republic (22.1 per 100,000), making it among the safer countries in the region.In large part, this is due to the country's ability to fulfill a pledge by increasing its national police yearly by 50%, a four-year initiative that was started in 2012. In addition to the yearly recruits, the Haitian National Police (HNP) has been using innovative technologies to crackdown on crime. A notable bust in recent years, led to the dismantlement of the largest kidnapping ring in the country with the use of an advanced software program developed by a Westpoint-trained Haitian official that proved to be so effective that it has led to its foreign advisers to make inquiries.
In 2010, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) sent a team of veteran officers to Haiti to assist in the rebuilding of its police force with special training in investigative techniques, strategies to improve the anti-kidnapping personnel and community outreach to build stronger relationships with the public especially among the youth. It has also helped the HNP set up a police unit in the center of Delmas, a neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.
In 2012 and 2013, 150 HNP officers received specialized training funded by the U.S. government, which also contributed to the infrastructure and communications support by upgrading radio capacity and constructing new police stations from the most violent-prone neighborhoods of Cité Soleil and Grande Ravine in Port-au-Prince to the new northern industrial park at Caracol.
The two official languages of Haiti are French and Haitian Creole. French is the principal written and administratively authorized language as well as the main language of the press and is spoken by 42% of Haitians. It is spoken by all educated Haitians, is the medium of instruction in most schools, and is used in the business sector. It is also used in ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations and church masses.
The 2015 CIA Factbook reported that around 80% of Haitians profess to being Catholics while Protestants made up about 16% of the population (Baptist 10%, Pentecostal 4%, Adventist 1%, other 1%). Other sources put the Protestant population higher than this, suggesting that it might have formed one-third of the population in 2001. Haitian Cardinal Chibly Langlois is president of the National Bishops Conference of the Catholic Church.
Vodou, a religion with African roots similar to those of Cuba and Brazil, originated during colonial times in which slaves were obliged to disguise their loa or spirits as Roman Catholic saints, an element of a process called syncretism and is still practiced by some Haitians today. Since the religious syncretism between Catholicism and Vodou, it is difficult to estimate the number of Vodouists in Haiti.
Minority religions in Haiti include Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Judaism, and Buddhism.
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