Expedia Group presented this Thursday a plaque of recognition to the Dominican State for having achieved “the best tourism promotion campaign in Latin America during 2021-2022”, during the celebration of the Dominican Annual Tourism Exchange (DATE 2022)the main tourism fair held in the Dominican Republic.
The recognition was received by the president, Luis Abinader; David Collado, Minister of Tourism and Rafael Blanco Tejera, President of the Association of Hotels and Tourism (Asonahores).
Upon receiving the present, Abinader said that this is a job that has been carried out with passion, patriotism and enthusiasm.
“We came to government at the worst moment in the history of tourism and when we saw the economic data we understood that, if we did not recover the tourism sector, we would not recover the economy”said the president.
He commented that what they have done is support all sectors and, “that is what we have done: support sectors such as Expedia, which is a huge platform that has had an excellent relationship with our country and will continue to do so a lot.” plus”.
He maintained that he is extremely objective with the results that have been achieved in terms of tourism in the month of April, he anticipated that “May will also be a great month and we will also have a great summer.”
For his part, Freddy Domínguez, Vice President in Latin America and the Caribbean of Expedia Groupmaintained that this entity is responsible for 25% of the arrival of American tourists to the Dominican Republic.
He extolled that the Dominican Republic is the second largest operating destination in Latin America and part of its 15 most important destinations worldwide.
Signing of agreements
In this scenario, the Dominican Republic signed three agreements of collaboration with the same number of important canada airlines in order to enhance the country’s air connectivity during the summer and winter seasons.
The agreements were signed with Air Canada Vacation, Sunwing Group and Air Transat are the result of the confidence that the Government has carried for the recovery of the tourism sector.
On behalf of the Dominican Republic, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, signed the agreement. For Air Transat, it was the vice president of products, Renée Boisvert; for the Sunwing Group, the executive Eric Rodríguez and for Air Canada Vacation, Dina Bertolo.
After the agreementsEric Rodríguez, Sunwing Group executive, commented that the Dominican Government, both in the past and in the present, has been very cooperative in making joint efforts to strengthen the Canadian market.
He explained that the important thing about the event is that the president, Luis Abinader, is supporting the tourism sector and that his institution mobilized a figure of 650,000 tourists between Canada and the United States before the pandemic.
“Now, in a pandemic, what we are doing is recovering the market, we are waiting for the Canadian government to relax the regulations of the pandemic so that Canadians feel comfortable and happy to be able to travel to different destinations, and once that this happens, we will be working to reach pre-pandemic numbers,” he said.
He commented that they are currently making 21 flights in Punta Cana and for the summer they will have three in Puerto Plata.
