Mauricio Ramírez Villegas, representative of the United Nations (UN), considers that the Dominican Republic is experiencing a stellar moment, like other nations, to rethink its economic and tourism model, making it increasingly inclusive and further developing its tourism industry .
The also Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in the Dominican Republic praised the work carried out by the Tourism Cabinet chaired by President Luis Abinader and which is coordinated by the Minister of Tourism David Collado through which they have managed to advance in the tourist recovery.
He argued that the Dominican Republic has enormous tourism potential, which has allowed it to have a very important economic growth in the last decade and on a sustained basis compared to the Latin American and Caribbean region.
“I would think anyway, in order to move forward, now that we are in a new stage of development, not only for the Dominican Republic and the region but for the entire world, regarding this health crisis generated by the pandemic, that there is a great opportunity to rethink various aspects, various factors of the development dynamics in the Dominican Republic and in particular, obviously the tourism model that has given so many benefits to the country ”, expressed Ramírez Villegas.
The United Nations representative understands that the time has come for the Dominican Republic to “rethink the economic model with many actions that can provide protection to populations, that protect the most vulnerable, that give opportunity to the most vulnerable, that protect to nature, the environment and obviously, that it generates the income that is sufficient to also be able to distribute those resources to the people who are most in need, as we also say in the United Nations and especially from the 2030 agenda as of The Sustainable Development Goals are sought and required to give greater support to the most vulnerable populations so as not to leave anyone behind, as stated in the 2030 Agenda ”.
“Tourism that is much more inclusive, tourism that recognizes the capacities, potential, production, and supply of communities at the local level, in agriculture, in services, will be very important in their inclusive development. communities. The Dominican Republic has immense potential for ecotourism, for example, not only beach tourism, mountain tourism, the biological diversity that the country has, nature, the different climatic levels, favor tourism beyond tourism of beaches, and I believe that there is great potential for ecotourism, which also allows us to recognize and value that natural capital that the country has, to preserve it, to protect it, and obviously to favor the development of those communities that live in those communities ” Said the representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations in the country, when interviewed by the journalist Moisés González, from Despertar Nacional.
The coordinator of the United Nations System said that tourism must be thought from the perspective of the beautiful beaches and the enchanting blue sea of the Dominican Republic, but also of its nature in regions, and that they do not necessarily also have opportunities to be able to generate a greater well-being in its quality, so that there is a great opportunity, now that we are in a stage of reflection, to be able to identify new forms of tourism and improve the current ones, improve them, there is space to do it, progress has been made but I think that much more can be done ”.
The Dominican Republic received a historical figure of 443,018 non-resident visitors in October.
It also reported that in the January-October period the country received 3,669,761 non-resident passengers according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.
