The Salvadoran vice president, Felix Ulloa, has given his opinion about the relationship between the “rebirth” of the country and the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in a recent interview. For Ulloa, bitcoin has been an important factor, alongside others, in this revamp of El Salvador, drawing crypto-related investments and tourists to the country.

Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa: Bitcoin Enthusiasm Attracted Investors

The Salvadoran vice president Felix Ulloa linked the positive developments in the country’s economy and the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender. El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender back in 2021, under the guidance of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele.

While some multilateral organizations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) questioned this, heavily criticizing Bukele’s actions and calling on the country to drop the plan, Ulloa stresses that this has had a positive effect on the country.

In a recent interview, Ulloa told Forbes:

The enthusiasm that started in the sphere of the digital economy, with bitcoiners, where El Salvador, having positioned itself as the first country to adopt a cryptocurrency as legal tender, was at the forefront and attracted many investors who are in fact installed in Salvador.

Tourism, Bitcoin, and Development

For Ulloa, another industry that has seen a sharp recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic has been tourism, with this increase being linked to the country’s new security policies and bitcoin.

Bitcoin as legal tender makes it easy for tourists who enter the country to pay for goods and services without worrying about currency exchanges, Ulloa stressed.

President Bukele had linked bitcoin and the recovery of the tourism industry before. In August 2022, Bukele stated:

Only a handful of countries have been able to recover its tourism to pre-pandemic levels. And that’s international tourism, so the reasons behind it are mostly bitcoin and surf.

However, Ulloa takes this link even further, explaining that these two (tourism and bitcoin) are part of the recovery that El Salvador experienced during Bukele’s administration. He detailed:

Without a doubt, tourism and the use of digital currencies go hand in hand and are a sign of that future and the rebirth of our country.