In this context, Travel2latam had the opportunity to talk with Andrés Fernández, President of the La Romana Tourism Cluster and the La Romana Hotel Association, and who is also Commercial Director of the La Romana Airport and Port.
What does the work that needs to be done at the Port and Airport consist of?
Basically, La Romana has a peculiarity that is very special in the world of tourism, it is the only destination in the world that has an international airport and an international cruise port. Both private, from the same company. There is a director for the airport and port, a deputy director, who is also a commercial director, and in this case I have the honor of representing him. With which we have become a great home port in the Caribbean. And the particularity is that if a cruise line in any destination has to talk to five actors to be able to carry out an embarkation or disembarkation operation, what we call the home port, that is, with an airport for its planes to arrive, with a ground handling company that transports passengers and luggage, with a port for the ship to dock, with a port agent, who is the representative of the cruise line and is in charge of managing both the enrollment and disengagement of its crew as well as the operation of the containers, all that happens at the home port. What in any destination forces a cruise line to speak with five different actors, in Romana they speak only with one, because we are port, airport, tour operators, port agents and we also handle the entire cargo part.
Obviously that is a benefit for shipping companies, right?
Correctly. First, because your interlocutor is a single company, a single person. And second, if we manage five business units, we can be much more competitive than any external party that wants to provide that type of service in the port. That is to say, we not only speed up and facilitate the work of the cruise line, but also the operation in La Romana is always more competitive in terms of rates than in any other port in the Caribbean.
For shipping companies, the airport is essential. Basically the boarding and disembarkation operation is carried out for European lines because the American lines prefer to leave from their territory. Firstly, for an immigration issue, many Americans today still do not have a passport, but with their ID and license they can board an American ship. Second, if they have to ship outside their territory, there is an air component, an air leg that has to be added to the cost, which makes them less competitive.
This year there is a peculiarity, we have an American line called NCL, Norwegian Cruise Line, which has chosen La Romana to carry out a home port operation. They are not all North American passengers, but there are also Canadians, Mexicans, Central and South Americans. And there is also a component of the local market, because the Dominican who is increasing in purchasing power also likes to travel. We have had that operation with the original Sky that has lasted all winter and we are already confirming that it will be repeated next season because the result has been very successful.
What is the Norwegian Cruise Line shipping company like?
From La Romana there is a ship, the Norwegian Sky, that leaves directly and makes a tour of the Caribbean touching Cabo Rojo in Venales, also in the Dominican Republic, touching Jamaica, goes south to Aruba and Curacao, and there goes up again to the Romana to do a next operation.
And is it the only case you have at the moment?
The only case of an American line embarking and disembarking, because normally American lines do so in American territory or in San Juan, which, being an American territory, has the same immigration, customs and tax regulations as the United States.
What operations do you have at the airport today?
We have an important operation from Canada, with Air Canada, Sonwing, Westjet, Air Transat. We also have the only route that directly connects Italy with the Dominican Republic, it is the Neos line that belongs to the Alpitur group, which connects both Milan and Rome with La Romana. We have flights from Puerto Rico, two daily flights that arrive from Caracas and connect with two daily flights that we have to Miami.
That is to say, the port continues to be a factor, an important actor in the airport's income statement. But logically the airport has also expanded its routes, because European lines only come to the Caribbean during the winter, because in summer logically the ships go to Europe to offer their services to European passengers from there.
What does La Romana imply from its geographical constitution?
The country is divided into 31 provinces plus a national district. La Romana is geographically located between two rivers, the Soco River, which is in San Pedro de Macorís, which is a province, runs through La Romana and ends in the Yuma River, which belongs to Altagracia. Altagracia, the province where Valle is located and where, for example, Punta Cana, Bávaro, is also located, belongs to Altagracia. So, in the Romana Bayahibe tourist hub we have created a structure in which we have an association of hotels and tourist cluster. The hotel association basically includes in its membership the big players of the destination, especially the hotel part, which is a very important private investment and then large companies such as Central Romana, which owns the airport, the port, the Casa resort de Campo, and its 2300 villas. The Central Romana tourism division has three companies: Casa de Campo, La Romana airport, La Romana cruise port.
The Hotel Association is an entity that welcomes large private players in the destination. And on the other hand we have the Tourism Cluster, there we are uniting above all the public and private sectors. The private sector, small actors in the tourism value chain, companies that organize excursions, taxi drivers, transportation companies, small hotels, boats that leave from Bayahibe on excursions to the Saona, which is the best-selling excursion in the country. And the public part is city councils, the Government, National Police, Local Police, Tourist Police, Civil Defense, there are a whole series of institutions that also affect the tourism value chain. Therefore, all of them are associated under the protection, under the umbrella of what we call Tourist Cluster.
What population does Romana have as a province?
La Romana as a province has about 280 thousand inhabitants. But when we talk about the Romana Bayahibe tourist hub, we are including a portion of another province that is Altagracia, which belongs to both Valle and, for example, Punta Cana, Bávaro, Miches, this entire area is from the province of Altagracia. The province of La Romana, whose capital is also called La Romana, has 280 thousand inhabitants. The city of La Romana is about 160 thousand.