Tourism Sustains Dominican Economy, Says Tourism Minister

The economic stability of the Dominican Republic rests in tourism, for which reason public and private sectors should unite their efforts to promote development projects that strengthen this activity and open the door to new outside investment, said the Minister of Tourism.

“The success of tourism management in the Dominican Republic is guaranteed because there is a common denominator, public and private projects go hand in hand so that we can together promote the projects demanded by the sector,”

Minister Francisco Javier García Fernández was speaking to the official Dominican press at a conference at the 2009 Dominican Annual Tourism Exchange (DATE). He said the Tourism Ministry (SECTUR) is developing a plan of action to resolve the road and highway access problems in the tourism zones; part of the solution involves the acquisition of a million gallons of AC-30 to repair the roads.

“On July 3 of this year there will be no more pothole problems in the access roads leading to the tourism areas. We have invited the main Spanish tourism investors to take a ride along these roads to make sure the problems are solved,” he said.

García Fernández added that after these roads are repaired, SECTUR will create a road maintenance crew to follow-up on the work. There are other important roads such as the Tourism Boulevard and the Coral Highway, approved by Congress; possibly next week work will begin on them, he said.

“The success of tourism management in the Dominican Republic is guaranteed because there is a common denominator, public and private projects go hand in hand so that we can together promote the projects demanded by the sector,” he added.

García Fernández was accompanied at the press conference by Haydee Kuret de Rainieri, president of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES). On Monday night, both tourism officials attended the inauguration of DATE 2009 as well as the opening of the Iberostar Grand Bávaro Hotel.

The event was attended by the Minister’s assistants and deputy ministers José Gabriel Rodríguez, Radhamés Martínez Aponte and Magali Toribio as well as Tourism Promotion Director Isabel Vásquez.

The Minister also announced that next week SECTUR will open nine Dominican Tourism Promotion offices in the United States as a mechanism for creating new market niches that will attract affluent visitors to the DR.

“In the face of the crisis, we have to move forward and there’s nothing better than opening promotion offices to show off our attributes as a Caribbean destination,” he indicated.

He also showed an interest in re-establishing the reception of cruise ships to Puerto Plata. He said this was a regular occurrence in the past and went on for many years and that now with the restructuring of the port, the possibility to resume the activity is open once again in the northern area of the country.

He said that last year, the country received a half million cruise ships and now with the incorporation of Puerto Plata once again, the numbers will surely rise.

García Fernández reiterated his idea of promoting a strategic Alliance with other Caribbean countries with the goal of increasing tourism from the United States, Europe and other countries around the world.

He said that next week executives from Air Dominicana will offer details about the operations of the airline which functions with private and public capital. They will also announce moves to increase international flights that connect with the Dominican Republic.

He added that the investment in promotion and advertising will be quadrupled in the Canadian market given the preference they have for the DR as a tourist destination.

“In the case of Canada, we want to give them special treatment. We are going to allocate more resources to promotion and advertising, quadrupling promotion investment in this market. Given the affinity between Canadians and Dominicans, it’s a strong and solid market and we should take advantage of the opportunity,” said the Tourism Minister.

Francisco Javier García and Haydee Kuret de Rainieri, at the official press conference of the DATE 2009 meeting.

Miguel Fluxá, president of the Iberostar Hotel chain, his wife, Tourism Minister Francisco Javier García and Haydee Kuret de Rainieri, president of ASONAHORES, at the inauguration of the DATE 2009 Tourism Fair which coincided with the opening of the new Iberostar Grand Bávaro Hotel.