Santo Domingo.-The Dominican tourism sector is fully recovered, and in frank growth, showing foreign and local tourists the diversity of offers that the country has.
This rebound is felt throughout the economy due to the chain produced by the industry, an example of which is that this sector contributes 15 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) and generates more than 800,000 jobs.
According to the Minister of Tourism David Collado, the arrivals of more than seven million tourists in 2022 have been a regional example of recovery and a demonstration that working in synergy between the public and private sectors is profitable.
He says that throughout the process, the economic sectors put aside private interests to focus on the recovery of the tourism industry.
“We have been lucky, but we have not left the recovery efforts of the sector to chance,” highlighted the incumbent during his participation in the Weekly Lunch of the Corripio Communications Group, where he participated accompanied by Jacqueline Mora, technical vice minister; Patricia Mejía, Vice Minister of Destination Management; Shaney Peña, Director of Planning and Projects; Amín Abel, director of the Inter-American Development Bank Project.
He pointed out that in this process, turning the country into a safe destination during the pandemic crisis and investing in improving the infrastructure of tourist destinations was key.
He cited among the actions carried out the application of an insurance for tourists with Covid-19 coverage, the international certification of virus management and the training of human resources in the sector.
“These actions turned the eyes of the world towards us, and tourists began to arrive,” recalls Collado, emphasizing that these actions favored international recognition such as the World Tourism Organization, tourism ministers from Colombia, Spain and more than 16 families of Spanish investors who have recognized that the Dominican Republic has been a model of success compared to other destinations in the region.
He argued that the history of tourism recovery is worthy of applause because despite global uncertainties it continues to grow.
“This year in January the arrival of tourists grew by over 20% compared to 2022, the preliminary figure,” stressed the official, showing that from tourism they carry out constant monitoring of the entry and exit of tourists to maintain the quality of the services.
But that was not all, work was also carried out to strengthen the infrastructure of the tourist poles with the recovery and modernization of beaches, streets and boardwalks, the minister pointed out, detailing that an investment of 2,000 is planned for the recovery of these spaces. million pesos, resources that he indicated are taken from the savings of that ministry.
He stressed that these works are carried out with transparency and for this purpose an observatory of good practices was created, chaired by about five universities that oversee and carry out the bidding for the works.
In addition to that, they are focused on making mountain tourism spaces viable, such as the Los Cascabeles spa, indicated Shaney Peña.
Country challenges
Despite all this, the country has challenges such as the construction of 30,000 hotel rooms and improving air connectivity by lowering the prices of air tickets, the official highlighted when indicating that Arajet has motivated the competition to lower prices, which favors the country.
He also added that the Government has introduced a bill to eliminate the payment of 27% tax to Dominican airlines and 1% of assets.
He also said that the Government intends to sign the open skies agreement this month to influence better prices for passengers.
Another country challenge is the regulation of the Aibnb platform, which has some 97,000 rooms with whom they have a preliminary agreement to regulate.
“The importance of this regulation is important for safety issues and maintaining quality,” he stressed.
Miches, the model destination of the sector
Destination. Miches has become the model tourist zone, where an organized development is intended to be carried out and it has housing projects of about 3,000 units.
Regarding its development, the Government intends to build an access road, which is under feasibility study, to be carried out either from Miches, La Altagracia or San Pedro de Macorís. David Collado highlighted that despite the fact that it is under development, currently this is a preferential destination because the occupancy rate exceeds 97%.
