With the idea of increasing awareness of the Dominican Republic as a tourism destination for Europeans, the Dominican Tourism Promotion Office (OPT) for Spain and Portugal have held 15 educational seminars so far this year involving over 300 travel agents who specialize in vacation planning, bookings, congresses and incentive trips.

“The Dominican Republic as an ‘inexhaustible’ destination is a departure from its ‘sun and beach’ image and moves on to offer its wide range of leisure possibilities for visitors..."

“The Dominican Republic as an ‘inexhaustible’ destination is a departure from its ‘sun and beach’ image and moves on to offer its wide range of leisure possibilities for visitors. Such possibilities include excursions to Hoyo de Pelempito and the exotic Bay of Eagles beach or an exploration hike through the Haitises National Park which conserves some of the world’s most unique flora and fauna, according to a Tourism Ministry press release.

“The seminars cover the presentation of these tourist destinations to agents with clients wanting golf trips, meetings or incentive vacations which are part of the themes we offered at these seminars,” explained Paola Dimitri Buonpensiére, Director of the OPT for Spain and Portugal.

Ms. Dimitri added that “these training courses for Spanish and Portuguese tourism professionals are being carried out thanks to the support of the main tour operators and travel agents who have given our team their training classrooms for the course, which is called “Specialization in the Dominican Destination.”

Participants in the seminars are immersed for two hours in Dominican geography and according to the results of early surveys about the classes, 9 out of 10 course attendants say they received useful and motivating information that will help them sell the Dominican Republic as an attractive destination.