In this context, Travel2latam spoke with David Collado, Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic.
What are the expectations and objectives of the Dominican Republic's participation in WTM?
The Dominican Republic has participated in this fair for many years, but the English market is extremely important for our country. In 2019 we had about 125,000 English tourists and currently we have 178,000, and this year there was a 1% growth. This market is important for tourist areas of our country and we are making an effort to recover the numbers of 10 years ago. Our goal is to reach 250,000 tourists, and in this work session we have meetings with tour operators and with British Airways, because we want to get more flights to the Dominican Republic.
Speaking of connectivity, the Arajet phenomenon has recently expanded its operations…
Yes, what is happening in Latin America is extremely important, with the effort made by Arajet, a Dominican airline. Especially in the Argentine market we have been growing almost 100% this year.
We have all the promotional efforts with the Latin American market, which is responding very well. In the European market, due to the war between Russia and Ukraine, the cost of fuel and inflation, which has decreased, the Dominican strategy has been to strengthen Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and we are experiencing extremely large growth. It is very easy to communicate and promote in Argentina and in other Latin American countries because we speak the same language, we are very similar, we have the same culture.
Colombia is growing almost 100% of what it was before the pandemic, Argentina and Brazil are going strong, Chile is going for more than 225,000 Chileans who are visiting the Dominican Republic. Before, the European market, after the North American one, was the most important, now it is Latin America and that fills us with pride.
What can you tell us about the diversification of destinations in the Dominican Republic?
The country's strategy is to diversify tourism and our destinations. Now we have Miches, which is a new tourist destination, a beauty, where, for example, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Viva Wyndham, the Rainieri Family, owners of Punta Cana, are already entering with a hotel called Zemi in alliance with Hilton. This destination already has 1,000 new rooms that will open in December.
It also has a beautiful beach called Playa Esmeralda. But we also have the relaunch of Puerto Plata with Punta Bergantín, where there are new hotel chains that are entering; Hyatt, Meliá and the Punta Cana Group. And what we are playing is diversification, because our country is not only Bávaro, Punta Cana. In addition, we are exploiting our gastronomy, culture, sports tourism and golf tourism as well. Santo Domingo has grown a lot in the MICE segment. And the Colonial City right now has an investment of 100 million dollars, with a complete renovation of the historic center.