Dominican Republic Intensifies Efforts to Expand Tourism to the US Midwest

The Tourism Promotion Office (OPT) of the Dominican Republic, with its headquarters in Chicago, is undertaking an aggressive strategy to expand its market in the Midwest United States and to open a new niche among this important American demographic. 

“to promote destinations that need support, like Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo or La Romana, and to provide maintenance to Punta Cana which is a place that is experiencing the most growth in the region.”

“We have launched a campaign in the Midwest of the United States. We’ve visited each of the states, such as Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and are working hand in hand with tour operators, training them in their reservation centers, making and maintaining contacts with all the key players in the tourism industry,” explained Patricia Perez, OPT Director in the Chicago.

The strategy, which is already showing positive results, seeks “to promote destinations that need support, like Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo or La Romana, and to provide maintenance to Punta Cana which is a place that is experiencing the most growth in the region.”

“What we’ve done,” she indicated, “is to show and give information that each destination in the Dominican Republic is different. This permits us,through this educational work, to show the diversification of our tourism offerings and to find a proportional balance in terms of visitors to the distinct destinations in the country,” explained Perez.

To achieve these objectives the OPT, directed by Perez since this past November, has been involved in a huge series activities which, for the first semester of 2008, included the Adventures and Travel Expo, five trade shows directed toward travel agents, eleven special business events, incentive groups and representatives from Chicago agencies in addition to nine visits of tour operators and airline companies while hosting a total of 68 travel agencies. 

They also held 16 seminars and presentations and placed a spot on Fox News for the promotion of the Adventures and Travel Expo. The actions are being undertaken, not just in major Illinois cities, but also in places such as Indianapolis, Seattle, Portland, Detroit, Minneapolis and Saint Louis, among others.

Important initiatives undertaken involve updating the data base that holds the agencies and certification of 110 travel agents specialized in the DR. This was done in coordination with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO).

Future activities include the participation in the largest private aviation tourism fair put on by the ITME fair and incentives group. This will take place on September 23 in Chicago. The Dominican Ministry of Tourism and representatives from the hotel sector will have an important presence at this fair.

During the second half of the year the OPT continues to have an active schedule due to the preparations underway to deal with the tourism high season. “Chicago is a winter market so therefore we have to aggressively promote tourism during this time,” said Ms. Perez.

Patricia and Rocío: Patricia Pérez, Director of the OPT in Chicago and Rocío Díaz, her assistant as they work in one of the many travel fairs in the United States.

An American travel agent makes no attempt to hide her passion for the musical groups, organized by Chicago’s OPT, at the Adventures & Travel Expo. .

A young couple has fun with a “limping devil” at the Adventures & Travel Expo.

A couple looks at the photos of Dominican beaches published as part of the promotional material developed for “Caribbean Nights” as part of the Detroit Tourism Fair which the DR participated in through the OPT of Chicago.