The Asian country saw opportunities to invest in education and hospitality in the Dominican Republic during the 118th meeting of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
The three-day summit was described as a success by the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, because the Dominican Republic shined and from now on will be present in the 45 countries that participated in the meeting.
The Minister of Tourism assured that under no circumstances are they going to promote a tourism where the wealth stays in the walls of the hotels. “The wealth from tourism has to be redistributed and has to permeate all the communities; that is our vision”.
The results of the meeting have already begun to be revealed. As a result, Saudi Arabia became interested in investing in the Dominican Republic. “In education, they will bring technicians to train tourism personnel and they will train Dominican personnel in Saudi Arabia”, he revealed.
In addition, they evaluated the possibility of the UNWTO being part of the construction of a tourism university in the East. “They (Saudi Arabia) want to be part of this project of international support and guided by the World Tourism Organization in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism.”
According to the Minister, Saudi Arabia wants to invest and sponsor that university in the Dominican Republic; as well as invest in Miches. “We talked about Miches and they are interested in coming with a delegation of investors and see the project that is growing in a strong way. There are already 2,000 hotel rooms under construction that are a reality,” said Collado on the last day of the summit.
On the other hand, air connectivity was also discussed in which tourists from Paraguay will be favored with a new route through the Dominican airline Arajet.
Seeking other markets
To compensate for the inflation issue that the European market is experiencing, Collado emphasized that they are looking for alternative markets such as Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.
“With Brazil we agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding. We are determined to recover the Brazilian market. In 2015 and 2016 around 200,000 Brazilian tourists were arriving, and then it dropped to around 60, 000 thousand. Last year, we ended up at 75,000, and this one is growing.”
As for the Maldives, the official revealed that they requested all the details of how the Dominican Republic recovered tourism.
Without bankrupting companies
In 60 days the Dominican Republic must have a more sustainable and environmentally friendly agenda with the reduction of plastic in our country’s hotels. “We must present a plan, a resolution. We believe in consensus, in dialogue; we are people with common sense; we are not going to break any plastic company, but the Dominican Republic is going to initiate a clear policy of plastic reduction, sustainable tourism and community tourism”.
During the activity, there was also a seminar on sustainable tourism and a conversation between media directors, Inés Aizpún, director of Diario Libre; José Monegro, director of El Día; and journalist Aníbal de Castro, on the editorial line of tourism in newspapers.
Source: Elcaribe.com.do
