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The Dominican government started construction on the new international airport that will service this new tourist destination. It will be located in Cabo Rojo, near the town of Pedernales on the Dominican-Haitian border (the Haitian mirror town is Anse-à-Pitre and it's expect it too will reap some benefits from the economic impact from this development, especially the tours that will be sold to tourists taking people to that side for the day). The Dominican government has annouced the project will include public-private investments of over US$3 billion. Over 20,000 direct jobs (and 50,000 indirect) will be created once the complex is up and running with 1,200 jobs created in the first phase. The resorts to be built will have a combined 12,000 rooms with 4,700 rooms in the first phase.
Geographically this will be the closest Dominican tourist development to Haiti, so it will be interesting to see how this fact plays since there is a sort of aversion to think of Haiti as a vacation destination. For many years Carnival cruise lines would anchor in Labadee, a famous vacation spot near Cap Haitien on the north coasf of Haiti, and to avoid making the tourists nervious would simply say they arrived to "Paradise Island" and never tell the visitors in reality they were in Haiti. A few years ago this policy changed and visitors are made aware they are in Haiti, but it goes to show the damage the international media has contributed in the image of Haiti. This affected the Dominican tourism industry, particularly in attracting American tourists, since many would see that the DR is the closest neighbor to Haiti and would avoid it simply based on that. In the early days, this issue was circumvented by promoting each Dominican tourist destination simply by the name of the area (Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, La Romana, etc) and American tourists would figure out they were in the DR when they landed. That was before Americans knew what to expect of the DR. It could be dejavu again since this development basically is next to Haiti, the other ones are quite far from the border. To get an idea how close to Haiti this place is, some Haitian radio stations frequencies (in Haitian Creole) are picked up while in most of the DR this is not the case. Some Dominican radio stations which are obviously in Spanish begin to be replaced by signals of radio stations in Haiti, in mny cases you don't need to change the car radio for this change to happen.
The other interesting fact is that given the way this project is positioned, on the western side of a peninsula, it will be one of the few Dominican international tourist destinations with sunsets over the sea. Most Dominican tourist destination are facing towards the north, east or south, not the west.
Six hotel companies already agreed to build resorts in the complex.
- Hilton (USA)
- Marriott (USA)
- Karisma (Mexico, I think)
- Iberostar (Spain)
- AmResorts (USA, I think)
- SunWing (never heard of them)
The Dominican Perfil Urbano Instagram account has posted several images of the master plan. A few are shown below, more in the link at the end. Again, everything is in Spanish. There is hardly anything in English.
See link below.
See link below.
On the bottom it says the following:
Area of the Project: 4,384 ha
Area of Phase 1: 830 ha
General Density: 4 ppl/ha
Phase 1 Rooms: 4,700
Total Rooms: 12,000
Building Index: 3.2
I have some mix feelings regarding this. I fully understand the economic need of this area which has been poor practically since ever. The greatest investment here was in the 1500's when a few Spaniards had some cotton plantations, in fact to this day this plain is known as the "Planicie del Algodón" or Cotton Plain despite not much grows here from a farming point of view and there have not been plantations of any kind for over 400 years.
However, this has always been a sparsely populated area, no doubt its semi-arid climate doesn't help and other more fertile areas of the islands were the choiciest places to settle. This could change with this tourist development. It's suppose to be environmentally friendly, but I have a feeling this will be the case during the first years. Then...
This area also has a fragile ecosystem. Needless to say, for years there has been pressures to develop this area for touristic purposes and always hit a wall as many of Dominican society would oppose this on environmental grounds. At one point they wanted to mutilate the Jaragua National Park to allow resorts to be built by the beach on Bahía de Las Águilas and the protests this received caused the government and investors to halt their plans. Now this project is outside the Jaragua National Park, but it's right next to it.
Among the many things that make the Jaragua National Park one of the most fragile ecosystems are the hundreds of endangered sea turtles that every year reach the beach at Bahía de Las Águilas and bury in the sand hundreds of eggs. Then they hatch and hundreds of baby sea turtles emerge from the sand and head to the sea. This has been going on every year for thousands of years. It remains to be seen what effect thousands of tourists on a yearly basis will have to this ecosystem.
The Minister of State of Foreign Affairs of Qatar visited the President of the Dominican Republic. Rumor says that the Arabs want to invest US$1.3 billion in the DR and they are seriously looking into the Cabo Rojo/Pedernales project. A Qatari delegation went to places in the DR, including where the Cabo Rojo project will take place, to see investments opportunities. The fact that Qatar kept its promise to send a delegation to the DR in January 2022 with minister from the Qatari government and private investors is a positive sign that the diplomatic relations between the two countries is on a good note.
A few years ago there were rumors that Qatar Airways is interesting in turning the DR into their Western Hemisphere hub. Is this part of that plan too?
How is the security at the dominican-haitian border?? Is there the risk of tourists being kidnapped and taken to Haiti??
In fact myself being white i avoid destination to failed countries where i could be spotted easily. I would rather go to Punta Cana than this resort at Haitian border.
None at all in the Dominican side and in that area there isn't much difference on the Haitian side. That area is like a bubble, on television you'll see stuff happening in Port-au-Prince or other areas of Haiti and outside is like you're in a different world where everything is normal. If it wadn't for the media, people there wouldn't know what is happening elsewhere.
In the DR it also doesn't makes any difference if most of the people are dark or if there is a mix and a person "sticks out." You'll be treated well regardless. There is also no racialresentment whatsoever, not even the feeling in the USA in this case whites get in predominantly black areas or how often blacks feel if they are or even live in an area of all white people. This could be something unbelivable for many Americans because what they know is the racial tension and racial suspicions that dominate the USA, especially in areas where a white person is in a "black area" or a black person is in a "white area" especially by themselves. But that's how it is in the DR.
The one thing that is noticeable ishow quickly living standards drop in Haiti, especially in the rural part, along the border. There is a part of the border further north from there that is divided by a road and while the Dominican side is virtually deserted, the Haitin side has a few villages and rural communities right on the border line. Ut's very common to see mud huts, dirt floor, naked barefoot children (the naked ones are almost all boys), and these huts literally have almost nothing, not even a bed and that's where they live. They seem friendly, but at least the kids will swarm any vehicle begging for things. Some people give them candy, which I think is wrong because what dentist do these kids see on a yearly basis? You're basically increasing the chances the kidswill develop cavities. In other parts of the border there divided by a river, as soon as you reach the bank of the river you'll see swarms of Haitian women washing clothes in the river, which is something not seen in the DR. In some ways it's like going to parts of Africa while never stepping foot on that continent. I think it's a learning experience as long as safety is guaranteed to the visitors.
I don't think this happens much down there in the Pedernales area, but as I said previously it will be interesting to see how this area is marketed since internationally the name Haiti is destroyed by the media. Getting near there to vacation is something foreigners will avert to, particularly because they don't know the difference between one area and another and assume all of Haiti is the misery seen on TV.
It's projected that the airport currently under construction will have the third highest passenger rate in the country. It will be used mostly by foreign tourists from North America, Latin America, and Europe.
Apparently, part of the inside of the terminal will have an environmantally friendly theme with all the plants. Plenty of earth tones, perhaps mimicking the semi-arid climate of the region. https://www.diariolibre.com/economia...ajeros/1616499
Expectations of passenger flow through the airport based on the completion of each phase of the touristic project. When the first phase is completed with 3,000 rooms; passenger flow should be more than 240,000 (arriving and leaving, not just arriving). When phase 4 is completed with 12,000 rooms; passenger flow should be more than 960,000 per year. https://www.diariolibre.com/economia...ajeros/1616499
It doesn't say how much money this airport will create, but the Punta Cana International Airport on the other extreme of the country makes about US$30 million gross every year. That one is bigger than this one will be, so perhaps this one will be in the US$10 million range plus or minus coming from the fees charged to airlines for using the airport, part of the sales in duty free stores, rent of the store spaces, parking fees, etc.
A few days ago was the ceremony of the beginning of the construction of the first two resorts. My guess is that once they are built, which can take two years at most, the airport would have to be built by then.
The following video (in Spanish) is of the two main architects of the Cabo Rojo project who were interviewed this morning in Santo Domingo.
Some of the things that can be exalted from everything they said are the following.
- First, they speak Spanish with a marked Colombian accent, so the main design of Cabo Rojo is an influence from that South American country.
- They wanted to prioritize environmental conservation and one of the ways they acheived that in the master plan is designing the resorts to be slightly away from the coast rather than right on the beach. He says many of the resort owners were not happy about this, but they did it anyway.
- The entire master plan was done during a one year period when these types of plans usually take around four years to design. This was due to pressure they received from the Dominican government.
- The first three resorts will be of the Hyatt hotel chain, which I think is American. This would be the first Dominican tourist destination that start with American hotels. Usually they are Europeans, namely from Spain or even France with Club Med (although recently it was sold to a Chinese company, so technically Club Med which has always been French is now Chinese.)
- One of the main architects says that what he saw of the natural beauty of the beach is unlike anything he has seen and this is considering his company is working on projects in Punta Cana and in other countries such as Colombia. Despite seeing that, he was still impressed with what he witnessed of the beach in Cabo Rojo. He says he has never seen the different hues of blue that the sea has there.
Antonio that is a Canadian company. They are a large travel agency, tour operator, own Blue Diamond Resorts which is multiple brands like Royalton, Memories, Planet Hollywood, Starfish, and they have a fleet of 30 737's.
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