The Dominican Republic is known for promoting “Sun and Beach” tourism, which is developed specifically in attractive tourist resorts.
However, under the premise that tourism is in all the provinces of the Dominican Republic, the Ministry of Tourism launched the platform “Tourism in every corner” to promote and boost the attractiveness of each demarcation of the country, which in turn will contribute to its economic development.
The objective of this project is to give visibility to all the attractions of the country’s 31 provinces, covering the entire value chain from the perspective of gastronomy, products, natural resources, culture, history, handicrafts, dances, through a promotional campaign of provincial activations that positions the destinations for the local market.
The Deputy Minister of Destination Management of the Ministry of Tourism, Patricia Mejía, emphasizes that this platform has a focus on sustainability and inclusion and seeks to empower each destination in the country.
“Tourism is all of us, tourism is in all the provinces, what we have to do is to organize them because in each of them there is essence, there is spirit,” said Mejía.
The deputy minister explained that traditionally people in the towns were integrated into the tourism sector only to work in the construction of hotels or to be employed in these, and with this platform they intend to boost domestic tourism.
“The Dominican Republic thanks God is well positioned at the level of tourism in the international market, and has followed a strategy that has given good results, but it is a strategy led by the investments that come to the country, especially in the East because there are countries that understand that the Dominican Republic is only Punta Cana,” he said.
However, Mejía clarified that he is not against the tourism strategy, which he supports and continues to promote. “However, it is necessary to integrate to this strategy of visibility of the country abroad, this project of Tourism in every Corner”.
Mejia stressed that this platform, arises from taking as an example the Sustainable Community Tourism (TCS) project of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which lasted six years, and sought to identify innovative products in 14 provinces of Cibao, where they identified 101 that were linked to tourism.
He explained that this project created a strategy to identify these products in these provinces to promote and sell them locally and internationally.
“When we were given this strategy to the Ministry, we told Minister David Collado about it and when he saw it he said that something had to be done, and he proposed to do Tourism in every Rincón,” Mejía said.
Mejía said that at first it was thought of as a strategy of promotion and publicity of destinations, but since the Dominican has little knowledge of his own country, then it is so that internal tourism can also be done and they can visit those communities.
About the project
The vice minister explained that they intend to carry out an activity to promote the province every two or three months, and it will depend on the organization and adequacy of the place.
She explained that this project has two components: the part to promote and publicize domestic tourism “to turn each Dominican into an ambassador of the country, because no matter how much effort we make at the international level, if we have Dominicans all over the world who do not know their country, and who better than themselves to promote it”.
The other component is the creation of these new products in provinces and municipalities that people never thought they could have a tourist resource that could be enjoyed by Dominicans and foreigners alike.
Regarding the investment of the project, Mejía stresses that they are managed with the Ministry’s budget, and each province will have its own investment based on its needs. “It would seem costly because of the magnitude of the project, but it is a matter of articulation of effort, because it is a joint vision.”
In that sense, he explained that the Ministry will serve to channel the aid needed by that province, and each participating institution will assume that expense.
Mejía gave as an example that, if it is electricity, then that expense will be assumed by the generator of that province, and so on with the institutions or ministries that participate.
Training
The project includes the training of the municipalities of each town, and for this reason, the Vice-Ministry is in dialogue with the National Institute of Technical Professional Formation (Infotep), to provide the necessary training and tools to the municipalities so that they can potentiate the products.
When speaking about help to finance the project of the citizens, Mejía said that they will put them in contact with Promipyme to help them with the financing and help their projects to grow.
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