Tourism has been the most important sector of the Dominican economy from the point of view of the generation of foreign exchange to the State, exceeding eight billion dollars last year, and the arrival of seven million tourists, said Bolivar Troncoso Morales, an expert in tourism to show the progress, improvements and projections of tourism.
These figures have translated into social improvements due to the link that this sector has with other sectors of the economy, which has been the result of the work in synergy of the public and private sectors, as well as the legal security that the country maintains, reinforced with a tourism marketing policy assumed by all governments regardless of partisan differences, he said.
“The best success of the marketing of the Dominican tourist destination is linked to the country’s promotion in 22 international destinations, from where most of the tourists arrive,” stressed Troncoso Morales, former vice president of the Special Committee on Sustainable Tourism of the Association of Caribbean States.
He added that this country promotion, both in the main tourist destinations as well as in the emerging ones, is added to the trade show of the Dominican Republic headed by the Minister of the Ministry of Tourism.
Troncoso Morales, showed the country’s tourism potential to dozens of businessmen and government officials of Guatemala during the second edition of the Dominican week in Guatemala, with the participation of more than 20 Guatemalan and Dominican companies that make known their products and services.
In taking stock of the work done to position the Dominican Republic as one of the main tourist destinations in the region, he recalled the 1960s when the Dominican government began to establish norms and incentives to promote the destination.
In fact, this favored the sector to the point of being one of the sectors that attracted the most foreign investment over the years, he said.
He said that the 1960s and the following two decades marked the beginning of the development of inbound sun and beach tourism, with effective political measures such as the declaration of tourism of high national interest (Decree 2536-1968) and declared it a national priority in 1969; the Tourist Incentive Law or Law 153 of 1971; the creation, in 1972, through 153, of a financial organization for the development of tourism infrastructure, INFRATUR, attached to the Central Bank.
The expert affirmed that in more than 20 years the Dominican Republic has prepared the bases to continue receiving tourists, and has focused on promoting the seven tourist poles.
Recovery
The Government of Guatemala also exhibited its indicators and pointed out that tourism has recovered 102% with the arrival of 2,450,000 tourists in the first months.
Source: Mitur.gob.do
