The Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic organized a dinner at the Grand Plaza Hotel in New York to recognize the companies that contribute to and promote the growth of tourism from that city to the Caribbean country, since it is the most important market for Dominican tourism, representing 30 percent of the total number of visitors from the United States.
The Minister of Tourism, David Collado, welcomed the more than 400 attendees, thanking them for the efforts made during the last 10 years by the country.
During the event, the ministry gave awards to Expedia, Hopper and Vacation Express for their contribution to the promotion of tourism in the Dominican Republic.
It also gave special recognition to Destination Weddings, a leading wedding agency in the sector. Likewise, the three travel companies Travelong, Flight Center Travel Group and Travel Impressions.
Since the pandemic, the Dominican Republic has positioned itself as one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, demonstrating that effective sanitary protocols can ensure the safety of tourists and support a healthy tourism sector.
“Thanks to a comprehensive strategy, which was based on four fundamental pillars, these being: participation, which consisted of everyone being able to make decisions together; monitoring of the environment, we monitored what was happening in all the countries to be able to keep changing (the strategy); quality monitoring, which aimed to ensure that the protocols that were met in the hotels and the street were safe; and, finally, efficiency, because there were few state revenues and with a lower budget we had to demonstrate that we could, and so it has been,” said the technical vice-minister, Jacqueline Mora.
As steps towards the future, the minister announced plans for the development of Miches, El Seibo, with an investment of US$1 billion, for which agreements have been established with several entrepreneurs in the hotel industry, including: Frank Rainieri, Rafael Blanco and Gustavo Cisneros.
The objective is the creation of a magical and organized tourist destination, starting with the investment by the private sector.
Together with the initiatives in Pedernales and BergantÃn, the development of tourism in Miches is part of a tourism diversification strategy based on the principle of conservation, attracting foreign investment, increasing the added value for tourists, but, above all, creating jobs and population mobility.
The Dominican Republic was able to recover from the number of visitors in 2020 when it received 2.4 million, to receive a total of 4.8 million tourists in 2021.
Since then it has continued to break records, attracting more than 560,000 visitors during the month of May, a growth of 11 percent over May 2018, 6 percent over 2019 and 44 percent over 2021.
“The pandemic posed great challenges for the Dominican Republic’s tourism sector. Now, two years later, we have been able to not only recover, but also build a stronger tourism sector, thanks to the support of our partners present at this event, as well as many others around the world and, of course, our health strategy. I am delighted with the growth we are seeing and look forward to welcoming many more visitors to our beautiful country in the coming years,” reflected Minister Collado.
Earlier this year the Dominican Republic was recognized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) as the first country in the world to achieve tourism recovery. It was also recognized by Leisure Lifestyle as the Best Caribbean Island and by Wherever Family as the Best Caribbean Island for Families.
