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Yesterday, the Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic celebrated the arrival of the 10th millioneth international tourist to the country.
For several years it was a goal of the Dominican government to do what it takes to incentivize reaching 10 million tourists. Not only is this the first time the Dominican Republic receives 10 million tourists in one year, but I think not even other big players in Caribbean tourism such as Jamaica, Puerto Rico or Cuba (with Haiti and the DR, those are the only places in the Caribbean that if they focus their energy could receive more than 10 million each and not places like St Lucia, US Virgin Islands, Bahamas, etc due to size.)
The 10 million tourist was a woman from California that landed on an American Airlines flight from Miami, Fl to Punta Cana Intenational Airport. She was given flowers and other things including Dominican government paid stuff during her vacation (free for her) in the DR. I think this is too much because all she did was be a random passenger in a flight and deplane at Punta Cana, but whatever. lol
The Dominican economy doesn't depends solely or mostly on tourism, but ever since the government began to focus its development it has become one of four pillars of the Dominican economy. First, the Dominican government built several hotels in different parts of the country during the 1940's and 1950's (for example, for many years the Hotel Jaragua was considered the best hotel in the country, the Hamaca in Boca Chica was the first beachside hotel in the country, the El Embajador was the first modern hotel in the country all were built and owned by the Dominican government though now are privately owned and managed) and for the first time developed a tourism promotion campaign mosly in the USA encouraging to stay in the government owned hotels and fly to the DR with PANAM or Dominicana de Aviación (the then government created and owned national airline.) The biggest influence that lead the Dominican government to start giving some attention to the then non-existent tourism industry in the DR was both of its immediate neighboors: tourism in Puerto Rico had reached levels unknown in that island and Haiti was one of the main touism centers in the Caribbean, especially the Port-au-Prince/Petionville area (then were small towns, not the metropolis it's now.)
In the 1960's there was a new round of Dominican goverment supporting the development of tourism, but this time the focus was to attract private investors and depend less on the government. Several incentives were created for hotel/resort development along certain stretches of the coast, particularly in Puerto Plata. As several years passed and tourism despite developing was not taking off, the Central Bank decided to convert a small area near the Montellano sugar plantation outside Puerto Plata in a tourism center. Since the private sector was not doibg much, the Central Bank created the Playa Dorada complex. It limit itself to creating the limits and gates, the road in the complex, the golf course (which was the third or fourth golf course created in the DR but second created by the Dominican government) and created new economic incentives for private investors to build and operate the resorts. The first one was by an American hotel company a Jack Tar or Blue Tar or something like that, I know it was from Texas. Eventually, that worked as Playa Dorada grew in the number of hotels to create it one of the highest concentrations of all-inclusive hotels in the Caribbean. Most tourists were not from the USA, but mainly from a handful of countries in Europe and Canada, mostly people from the middle and working classes.
The Central Bank also created another golf course in Playa Grande between RÃo San Juan and Cabrera. Today, that area has a more exclusive (and expensive) tourism, the golf course now belongs to a private hotel company and basically the only people that can stay in the hotel are rich as it's very expensive to stay there on a per night basis.
Other areas that received incentives from the government to encourage the development of tourism includes Juan Dolio (then there was nothing there and the development of tourism there has been lackluster, now a place of mainly small apartments owned mostly by Dominicans mostly from the Capital), Samaná received much investment from the government including creating the pedestrian bridge that go to a few islands off the coast and looks picturesque from Samaná town. It later created incentives for the Coconut coast (Bávaro/Punta Cana), though tourism began to develop there randomly starting with Grupo Puntacana when there was nothing in the area. After the government gave incentives is when the building of resorts really took off, especially in Bávaro at that time mostly by hotel/resort companies from Spain (mostly from Palma de Mallorca.)
Tourism has also developed in places originally not earmarked for this development such as Cabarete and Sosúa in Puerto Plata province, Bayahibe near La Romana, Las Terrenas in Samaná province, etc. Now the government put incentives for tourism development in Miches and currently there is a boom of resort construction there and some are already functioning (the Club Med is the first to open) and they are doing something similar to what was done in Puerto Plata with Playa Dorada in Cabo Rojo near Pedernales in the deep south, but focused on a more exclusive tourist than initially in Playa Dorada but not entirely focused on the rich. That would be the first tourist destination in the DR in a Caribbean desert setting. The others are in semi-dry areas (Punta Cana) or in very wet lush areas (Las Terrenas).
There have bern certsin unforseen changes to the tourism in some places such as Sosúa and Boca Chica. The government is now attempting to discourage that by making those areas more family friendly, but lets see how that goes. Those two areas would receive more and larger hotels (along with that thousands of new jobs) if it has incentives for further tourism development and reduce the unforseen type which in reality was created by a few foreigners that set up small businesses there (bars, restaurants, etc) and touted as "heavens of sin" to tourists in the USA/Canada/Europe. Notice that's the main attraction in those two areas only while every other tourism center of the DR revolves around tourism for families and couples.
There are also other issues afrecting the DR tourism industry such as the size of the illegal immigration from Haiti which is heading to the tourists zones to find work and small business opportunities. The major issue is the size, too many people at once when these areas were not designed for so many people. But life is of unforseen things. It throws you lemons, you learn to make lemonade. Lets see how it ends with that issue, particularly in Punta Cana/Bávaro.
To get an idea how much tourism has developed in the DR, in the 1950's it was one of the least visited countries in the world and one of the most isolated. By the 1970's the country hardly received more than 200,000 tourists. Today it's the most visited country in the Caribbean and its Punta Cana area is among the top 5 most visited places by international tourists in Latin America. Most of that acheived since the 1990's.
But things don't happen by chance. It was a decision by the Dominican government to encourage the development of tourism in the DR and it went into great length to encourage that creating examples to the private sector that tourism in the DR was possible, could be successful and it has the backing of thr government that created the conditions to make investments in the sector by private industry a possibility. Without that decision, it's practically a fact today the DR would hardly have any tourism and the hundreds of thousands of Dominicans, Haitians and other foreigners that make a living working or running businesses in the Dominican tourism sector would be out of a job.
Btw, notice most of the men instead of wearing the traditional suit and tie are wearing the Latin American invention (some say it was invented in BanÃ, Dominican Republic by producers of mangoes; but its origin is debated by several other Latin American countried which all claim it was invented there, go figure lol) of the guayabera shirt. This is a formal attire more in tune with the tropical climate and heat as it's more refreshing than soffocating suit and tie (from colder Europe.)
I'm sure all of those seen in the video are from Dominican guayabera designers and made in Dominican factories.
Antonio, nice write-up on the growth of tourism in DR. I don't have anything to add except to say DR is high on my list of places I'd like to visit. I speak Spanish, and DR (along with Cuba, Venezuela and PR) is one of the few Spanish speaking countries I have not visited.
I think one thing that could really help DR increase tourism is to have a safe-feeling country for tourists to visit, especially when they leave the all-inclusive resort and visit a variety of cities and towns. That helps them spend money in more places than just inside the fence of their resort. Some places in the Caribbean have serious crime issues (Jamaica, Haiti) so a place that really stands out in a good way for safety and security can use that in their favor.
Antonio, nice write-up on the growth of tourism in DR. I don't have anything to add except to say DR is high on my list of places I'd like to visit. I speak Spanish, and DR (along with Cuba, Venezuela and PR) is one of the few Spanish speaking countries I have not visited.
I think one thing that could really help DR increase tourism is to have a safe-feeling country for tourists to visit, especially when they leave the all-inclusive resort and visit a variety of cities and towns. That helps them spend money in more places than just inside the fence of their resort. Some places in the Caribbean have serious crime issues (Jamaica, Haiti) so a place that really stands out in a good way for safety and security can use that in their favor.
IMO, the crime issue is overblown often times by the resorts themselves or tour operator looking to sell their excursion packages.
Many tourists leave the resorts and visit places around Punta Cana with not much safety issues. Obviously, no one has any business in a ghetto, but the same applies in the USA and other countries where most of the people that go to those neighborhoods either live there or know someone that does.
There are two hints of many that the crime issue is overblown.
1. You do see trucks converted into a type of open air bus full of tourists roaming around in Punta Cana and into the interior. You also see coach buses with tourists heading to places in La Romana, Santo Domingo, etc from Punta Cana and back. You will also see tourists riding horses in some areas in the Punta Cana region, tourists rising in go-kart types of cars in tours they make in the area, etc. What you never see is a security guard in those groups. Now wonder why...
Here is a popular night spot in the Punta Cana area sith locals and tourists. This place is called Down Town Punta Cana (don't think this is the actual downtown for Punta Cana/Bávaro since there isn't one, more like several areas that each could be considered "downtown" though geared to different publics.) Tell me if anyone looks on edge regarding safety concerns. That particulsr place was (and continue to be) developed by Dominican and Venezuelan investors. Notice this is open air and anyone can enter as there is no security to pass through prior to entering the premises. There is a police pick up truck (white and blue) that appears there.
2. There are many videos throughout the country of Dominicans riding things that will attract attention in public and attending events with no real security concern. For example, this is one of the latest video by Danny Rivas in Jarabacoa, which is the town he lives in. Notice he is driving in non-touristy areas riding a quadmotor and with a GoPro camera. Quadmotors aren't common in the DR, so wherever any appear it will attract attention from many. A GoPro camera is known to cost a lot even by people that don't know what is a GoPro. They simply look at the camera and know that idn't cheap. Yet, he never has a security concern.
Now, obviously he doesn't go into ghettoes and neither would I riding one of those things.
3. This is a walk in a non-touristy mostly middle class neighborhood in Santo Domingo. At a certain point he his shadow is shown and it becomes evident he doesn't have the camera hidden. The police is also absent at least from view in the video.
This one is in the Chinatown district of Santo Domingo during a market day. This is not a touristic area and the neighborhood isn't particularly a nice one, but notice they don't look stressed out worrying they might become victims of crime or some of the merchants might be robbed. Also notice the police presence. Now, this isn't the type of neighborhood I would walk through at night, but during the day take a look.
From time to time even in safe areas some random things do happen, but Midtown Manhattan is also a safe area of NYC and from time to time stuff happens there too. Avoid rough neighborhoods and what neighborhoods are safe during the day and which others at any time. That is all there is to it. Everywhere you go will not be like walking through a rough dangerous ghetto.
As expected, all the major newspapers of the Dominican Republic had the California women before the front page. lol The General Secretary of the World Tourism Organization, Zurab Pololikashvili, congratulated the President of the DR (Luis Abinader) and the Minister of Tourism (David Collado) on achieving this milestone.
The 10 million viditors injected an approximately US$17.1 billion to the national economy, US$10 million in new hard currency, RD$75.7 billion in tourism related job salaries and wages (inevitably that's money that goes to rents, colmados and supermarkets, gasoline, savings, etc) and tourism related jobs amounting to 620,190 (this includes workers in direct tourism companies such as hotels and indirectly impacted by tourism such as third party transportation.)
ListÃn Diario 12/28/23
ListÃn Diario 12/28/23
Aomething I learn rather recently is that just at the Punta Cana International Airport are sold over 1,000 Dominican products made by micro and small businesses founded by Dominicans. Over 200,000 bottles of Mamajuana are sold there, all made by small Dominicsn businesses. This is actually quite amazing. The Mamajuana is an alcoholic drink that was invented in the Dominican Republic basically by poor people from the countryside. Most of the proceeds from those sales go to them. I bet all those bottles themselves and caps are also made in the DR rather than importing them from elsewhere to place the Mamajuana drinks in them.
Over 200,000 bottles of Mamajuana are sold there, all made by small Dominicsn businesses.
Correct amount is over 300,000 to 400,000 and they are all made by just 3 small Dominican businesses that belong to people that never had a business before and were not rich or even in the middle class.
A few days ago the president of Grupo Punta Cana, Frank ElÃas Rainieri (he is the son of Frank Rainieri who along with the American Ted Kheel are the founders of Punta Cana), and he mentions some changes they are implementing at the Punta Cana International Airport. This is the principal airport that receives tourists in the DR (second most active in the Caribbean surpassed only by Luis Muñoz MarÃn International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico.) Among the changes he mentions (in Spanish) is adding the airplane maintenance service for airlines all over the world. All mechanics will be Dominican and they are going through training because the DR doesn't have this industry yet.
They will be working with very small profit margins, but the main purpose is to create more jobs to Dominicans, particularly those that dream becoming an airplane maintenance engineer but the country doesn't offer any venues to practice this profession in the Dominican Republic. They also want fofr this to further contribute to the middle class in Punta Cana, which says to me these will be well paid employment positions.
Their goal with this and an a manufacturing development they are also starting near the airport where the airport will be used for exports of the products is to turn Punta Cana into the "Singapore of the Caribbean." The transformation of Singapore into what it's today started with developing the manufacturing sector. Basically, they want Punta Cana's economy to diversify and not just depend on tourism. It will be interesting to see how this diversification takes place.
That airport didn't make sense in the location where they wanted to build it and the excuse they gave was giving the Punta Cana airport "competition," as if airports are built to compete with each other. Another argument was using the case of NYC where there are 3 airports near each other, yet NYC has a population of about 8 million and goes up to about 30 million when the metro area is included. The entire east of the DR has a population of 1.5 million (the Punta Cana area has a population of about 125,000 +/- which is only 8% of the entire region) and two international airports (La Romana and Punta Cana) that, unlike those in the Capital and the Cibao, doesn't depend on Dominican passengers. When you look at other destinations that compete with Punta Cana such as Cancún, Varadero, Montego Bay/Negril, etc; all of them have just one airport each. It's true those airports were built by the governments of each country and Punta Cana's airport is in fact the world's first privately owned open to the public international airport; but none have more than one airport.
The best thing done by the Constitutional Tribunal, which is a branch of the Supreme Court, was to decide against that new airport in Punta Cana. That new airport was going to be so close to Punta Cana's airport that it was going to require changing the routes of the airplanes arriving there. Allowing that airport to be built would had created a precedent where anyone could then build a new international airport close to any of the other Dominican airports to "compete" with them. Why not every airline build its own airport? Ridiculous.
Last edited by AntonioR; 01-03-2024 at 06:04 PM..
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Hint: In 2008 he sold all his shares in AERODOM for $350 million US dollars and that was the best thing as Las Américas International Airport in Santo Domingo and the one in Puerto Plata (the holding includes other airports, but those are the 2 biggest ones in its portfolio) began to see major improvements. 
