Bruce Pirt and Kathryn Jennifer Curtis traveled to the Dominican Republic from Ottawa, Canada, for a special reason: the celebration of 20 years of marriage in the country they chose to get married, and which they frequently visit for their vacations to escape the winter cold, accompanied by their daughters, Melissa Jane and Anna Wyn.
The family was surprised to learn that Bruce would represent the symbolic arrival of the visitor 11 millionsetting a new record in air and sea arrivals for the industry tour dominicanwhich will contribute up to $10.6 billion in foreign currency to the economy.
An arch of water received, upon arrival, the plane in which the honoree was transported, aboard flight 830 of Air Transatan airline that transports 50% of air passengers going from Canada to the Dominican Republic.
“Us we get married 20 years ago, and we’re back,” Bruce exclaimed with visible emotion after having been welcomed to the rhythm of folk merengue and having walked the red carpet with his family to greet the Minister of TourismDavid Collado, and the chairman of the board of the Puntacana Group, Frank Rainieri.
The minister of TourismDavid Collado, recalled that the reason for the celebrationfor the second consecutive year, of the projections of tourism Dominican In this way, it is because the receipt of 1 million visitors additional “is no small thing.
“Those 11 million visitors are 949,000 jobs directly and indirectly this year (…), they are 26,000 million dollars of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) that entered this country, and they are almost 130,000 million pesos in tax payments to the Dominican State. That is what we are celebrating here.”Minister of Tourism.
He indicated that this is relevant, especially in the case of Canada, which remains the second largest emitter of tourists towards the Dominican Republic.
For his part, Rainieri highlighted that Bruce also symbolizes the arrival of the passenger number 5 million Airport Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ), which shows the long history covered since the inauguration of the terminal 41 years ago, when it only received 2,541 tourists in its first year of operations.
“Five million is half the population dominican. Sometimes we talk about a number, and we don’t realize that 11 million visitors It means that one visitor comes for every Dominican“emphasized the executive, who believes that the public sector and the private sector must continue to join forces so that the country can attract an average of 15 million visitors from 2030.
Challenges for 2025 goals
For Collado, strengthening the connectivity aerial and the construction of more rooms hotels are the two main challenges that tourism has Dominican If you want to raise the bar and break the 12.5 million mark tourists that the president, Luis Abinader, proposed to the leaders of the tourism sector for 2025.
The reduction of price of the tickets air transport is the first aspiration that the Government has with the open skies agreements that the country recently signed with the United States and Argentina.
Although he price will depend on free competition, Collado hopes that this will reduce the price current of the tickets.
Regarding the hotel offer, there are already some projects that will be ready by 2025: Only in michesEl Seibo province, the opening of more than 1,000 is expected rooms hotel companies by 2025, of which up to 500 rooms They will be opened by the Rainieri family, and 200 will be from the Windham Resorts chain, Collado highlighted.
About the projections by 2025, Rainieri predicts that, by 2025, the industry tour will grow between 5% and 7%. “This would represent 500,000 to 700,000 visitors per year,” he calculated.
