Whereas a lot of its neighboring locations had been closed in the summertime of 2020, the Dominican Republic was open. And it by no means closed. The nation’s navigation of the pandemic helped kick off what would develop into a brand new golden age of tourism, ushering in a record-breaking interval that has proven no indicators of slowing down, with simply probably the most guests of any vacation spot within the wider Caribbean.
The nation’s tourism surge, one which resulted in 10.3 million complete guests final yr (together with air and sea arrivals), may be traced partly again to the best way it navigated the pandemic, when many vacationers thought-about the Dominican Republic when they won’t have in any other case achieved so, based on Jacqueline Mora, the Dominican Republic’s Vice Minister of Tourism.
However it’s about way over that, a narrative constructed on 50 years of tourism effort, a coordinated coverage and a novel prioritization of tourism — even in a area that largely will depend on the sector for its financial progress.
Now, the nation has even larger objectives, with the ambition of reaching 12 million complete guests in 2024, Mora informed Caribbean Journal through the Dominican Repubilc’s Miami commerce present on the JW Marriott Marquis resort.
So how is the nation going to do it?
Step one is to focus on new journey niches and classes, from rising the posh sector to creating an even bigger foray into experiences, to highlighting the fast-growing capital, Santo Domingo, as a gastronomic vacation spot to rising the golf market and the watersports sector, together with a big push within the occasions sector, as in weddings, assembly and conventions.
However the largest precedence is to focus on locations past the nation’s conventional stronghold of Punta Cana, build up new locations, new inns and filling them up with new vacationers.
That features locations like Miches, the vacation spot on the bay of Samana that now has seven new main tourism investments to hitch current resorts from manufacturers like Membership Med and Temptation.
Then there are in-development locations like Pedernales on the south coast, the place the nation’s authorities is making huge investments in public infrastructure.
Within the north, there’s the Punta Bergantin mission on the north coast, one that can embrace a golf course, a film studio, amongst different developments.
It additionally entails strengthening and repositioning locations like Santo Domingo, which has been seeing a wave of latest airlift from the US; and Puerto Plata, with the latter set for a serious increase with the development of a street connecting it to the favored metropolis of Santiago – and, extra crucially, Santiago’s heavily-trafficked airport.
The concept, Mora mentioned, is to tell apart the nation’s totally different hotspots with a novel model id — and create an id for every particular person vacation spot.
“We’re creating the manufacturers of the totally different vacation spot, however collectively being the Dominican Republic vacation spot,” she mentioned.
It’s all a part of the Dominican Republic’s tourism technique, one Mora mentioned would want to stability the necessity for progress with creating the human sources to maintain it.
“This yr we’re anticipating round 12 mil,” she mentioned, projecting progress at round 12 to 13 p.c — and an ambition to develop between 8 and 13 p.c yearly over the following decade.
“We are able to develop extra, however we must be prepared on the infrastructure aspect and the human useful resource aspect,” she mentioned. “One thing that has effects on all international locations is the difficulty of Human Sources — tourism is rising so much, however you can not develop too quick with the sources you want for it.”
For extra, go to the Dominican Republic.
