The public beach access to El Sunzal, one of the most popular surf spots in El Salvador, has been closed by a local hotel.
Surf tourism can be a gold mine. In some places, hotels and hostels try to monopolize surf spots to collect all the potential revenue in the area.
"Last April month, Casa de Mar Hotel closed the public beach access road to Sunzal surf spot. The purpose is to monopolize surf tourism in the area by driving the small hostels in the second and third row out of business," explains Jorge Dominguez from Naia-SUP, a local business.
"Not only did Casa de Mar Hotel close the road, but they built a seawall too close to the high tide, less than five meters. They did this by extracting rock with bulldozers from the surf spot."
The local surfing community also accuses the hotel of "dumping feces and garbage into the ocean."
As a result, "the adjacent lot to Casa de Mar has become a major swamp, and a mosquito paradise for the propagation of dengue fever."
Surfers promise to battle in court for public beach access to El Sunzal.