In this context, Travel2latam spoke with Yudit García, President of the Santo Domingo Hotel Association and General Manager of JW Marriott Santo Domingo.
What are the expectations at an event like this?
In addition to the opportunities to maximize business, which is what interests us all in terms of return on investment, the idea is to be able to create experiences so that those present here leave with a feeling of having known and interpreted the destination of Santo Domingo and idealize it for their next activities in the MICE segment.
What is your view on what has happened this year in the meetings industry in the Dominican Republic and how do you see the coming months?
The meetings industry works well in advance. We are aware that the efforts we are making this quarter will bear fruit in the coming quarters and in 2025 and beyond.
Up to this point, the meetings industry in Santo Domingo is growing in relation to medium-sized activities, but precisely by promoting initiatives like this we want to break the gap so that other important and larger destinations can locate us.
We see a lot of people who have been invited here. How was the selection?
That has been a titanic task. Ensuring that we could select the quality of hosted buyers that the market required was a joint effort between the Santo Domingo Hotel Association and, obviously, the expertise of ICCA. The idea of the approximately 50 hosted buyers that we have at this moment is the result of that symbiosis, and of the analysis of which associations in terms of annual activities and number of people can be an ideal achievement for Santo Domingo, and which can be viable in this destination in the next five years. Based on those criteria, all those who are here have been invited.