JANUARY 2009

Tourism in Dominican Republic is doing well

Tourism in Dominican Republic is doing wellAn increase planned for 2009

BREAKING NEWS: The investments in the tourist sector of the Dominican Republic showed at the end of 2008 a positive panorama, and could exceed the 11 billion dollars in 2009, reported an official source.

In an official statement published this Friday, the Tourism Ministry said that the increase in the tourism industry is, among other factors, due to the acceleration of the processes for approval of new proposals of investments.

The holder of the portfolio, Francisco Javier García, announced for 2009 an increase, going from 22 million to 44 million dollars, in the national budget intended for the external promotion of the Dominican Republic as tourist destination.

The minister qualified of amaizing the investments made in the hotel and real projects, which from October to December, reached approximately 10 billion 400 million dollars.

He added that the Dominican Republic acts as a magnet for the foreign investments.

The Dominican Republic closed the year 2008 in positive as for tourism, its independent source of currencies, with a recording of 4.3 million of visitors during the last quarters and investments for more than 10 billion dollars.

The last year, an average of one million people arrived aboard of cruise liners, a figure without precedent, while a million holiday makers coming from the United States represented 34 percent of the Dominican tourist flow.

With regard to 2007, the figures showed a growth of 10 percent of the tourists coming from Canada; three percent from France, the principal European niche, and a explosion from the emerging market of Russia, which recorded a growth of 88 percent.

According to the Minister, tourism is the most powerful and decisive sector of the Dominican economy, and it is regarded as the booster of the economic development of the country.

Las Terrenas Live, 05.01.09

The ten most important Tourist News of 2008

The ten most important Tourist News of 2008Crucial events

BREAKING NEWS: The designation of a new Minister of Tourism and the consequent change in the style of management of the public sector were evaluated as the most important facts of the tourist industry of the year 2008, by a group of journalists of the Dominican Association of the Tourist Press (ADOMPRETUR).

The journalistic group moreover highlighted, among the significant events of the sector, the reactivation of the Council of Tourist Promotion (CONFOTUR) with the approval of 43 projects, the first effects of the world economic crisis on the local tourism, the world recognition of the country as golf destination and the international rewards obtained by the Dominican tourism industry.

Among the selection of the ten most important actions that the tourist sector carried out during year 2008 there are:

  • The rise of the cruise liners industry
  • The election of Haydee Rainieri as President of ASONAHORES,
  • The opening of the road Santo Domingo - Samaná,
  • The participation of the Dominican Republic as host of honor in the Tourist International Fair of Berlin
  • The resumption of the flights to the United States with planes with the Dominican licence.

Las Terrenas Live, 06.01.09