The Dominican government is preparing to start in the next few days the bidding process for the contracting of the international agencies that will be in charge of the country’s tourism promotion in the issuing countries.
For this purpose, the “Observatory of Good Practices” was presented this Friday, a public-private body that will have the commitment to watch over the transparency in the contracting process of the international firms.
This was explained by the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, who criticized that in the last 16 years the contracting process of promotion agencies was carried out directly.
“We have to leave an important legacy and what better than to break with 16 years of a promotion that did not go to any competitive process. Technicians from the private sector are going to help the Ministry of Tourism to choose an international agency that really has the experience to promote the Dominican Republic, not one that is a friend of mine or of the president, but one that the country deserves,” he declared.
Collado pointed out that to date his administration has saved more than RD$2.1 billion in international promotion. However, he added that most of the competing countries in the region are already opening and that competition will be stronger.
During the activity, in which the observatory was presented, the official indicated that the country’s promotion budget, for more than 15 years, has been US$75 million “and we have taken the country’s money very seriously because that is a significant figure”.
He cited that the ministry cancelled the contract with the US agency BBQ and with Made in Spain Europe.
“We what we told (the agencies) was that we are going to make that spending more efficient in the 2020 budget and with that money we are doing the 2021 promotion, but we canceled the contracts with all the international agencies to get here,” he detailed.
According to the schedule presented by the Ministry of Tourism, the subscription of the advertising contracts would be taking place next December 3, after fulfilling a series of steps, including the reception of proposals, the verification of the envelopes with the economic proposals, among others.
“What we want to do is to put a shoe in such an important investment for the Dominican Republic”, said Jacqueline Mora, technical vice-minister of Mitur.
Mora said that the objective of the observatory is to ensure the transparency of the actions to be carried out, not only in the contest, but also in the follow-up of the funds for the international promotion of the country.
The observatory will be made up of the Government Ethics and Integrity Directorate, the Public Contracting Directorate, Banco Popular, Centro Cuesta Nacional, Fundación Institucionalidad y Justicia (Finjus), Asociación de Hoteles y Turismo de la República Dominicana (Asonahores), among other entities and universities.
