The selection of Santo Domingo as the venue for the annual two-day meeting of the Caribbean Nations Security Conference (Cansec) is a confirmation of the conditions of the Dominican Republic as a tourist destination in the region due to the security and Covid-19 control levels achieved by the policies and programs implemented by the Dominican authorities.
The affirmation was made by the president of the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores), Rafael Blanco Tejera, who understands that this is one more proof that the coordinated actions of the government and the private tourism sector are leading the country towards the recovery of the sector.
By hosting the meeting, he assured, “our Dominican Armed Forces co-hosting the event together with the U.S. Southern Command, sends an important message about the security offered by the country to the United States, which is our main market and contributes more than 40% of the tourists we receive.”
“This is of great significance, he said, because we are talking about a sector that impacts the entire productive apparatus of the country, contributes directly and indirectly over 20% of the gross domestic product and employs more than half a million people,” he added.
The Cansec is a regional cooperation and security forum sponsored by the United States Southern Command, “and the US military high command would not have asked the Dominican government to serve as co-host, if the appropriate conditions did not exist at a time of pandemic like the current one”, said the tourism businessman.
Blanco Tejera even pointed out that one of the topics to be discussed is linked to the participation of the military in the actions to contain the advance of the pandemic caused by SARS-COV-2, and because of the achievements obtained, the Dominican Republic will be presented as a reference model in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The president of Asonahores recalled that the Dominican Republic is considered one of the safest destinations for tourists who visit it, and has one of the lowest rates of crimes related to tourists; and cited the recognition of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) which considered the health safety protocols in the country as a world example.
Cansec brings together the military leadership of the Caribbean and counts with the participation of Canada, Holland, Mexico and the United Kingdom as observer countries. The Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Carlos Luciano Díaz Morfa, ERD, and Admiral Criag Stephan Faller, Commander of the United States Southern Command, are hosting the event.
Military representatives from France, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Vincent, Suriname and a delegation from CARICOM are attending. Virtual participants: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, and Turks and Caicos.
