Thanks to the strategy of the Ministry of Tourism and private sector
BREAKING NEWS: Dominican tourism has been on an upswing since September of last year in regard to passenger arrivals, after suffering a decline, due to one of the worst economic crisis the world has had in its history.
Unlike other Caribbean destinations who have also suffered adverse effects, the Dominican Republic has succeeded in placing the numbers in the blue on the flow of visits from abroad. According to the figures made available by the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Asonahores).
The organization’s executive vice president, Arturo Villanueva, expressed that the move toward the positive did not happen by itself. It was the result of a strategy designed and implemented by the Dominican Ministry of Tourism and the private sector at the institutional and private levels.
‘We have maintained an excellent working relationship, a great empathy with the technical and professional teams that make up the Ministry of Tourism and that has indisputably paid off’, pointed out Mr. Villanueva.
The public-private sector synergy was joined by the commercial airworthiness policy that has implemented the Civil Aviation Board (JAC) ‘which has been a major anchor in being able to begin the growth of tourism, after inheriting negative results from the global crisis’.
Mr. Villanueva claims are based on the fact that from January to April 2009, the JAC endorsed 1,654 passenger flight operations for the Dominican Republic and 362 cargo flights, for a total of 2,019 flights. Meanwhile, in the same period this year the agency approved 2,731 flights (of those 2,023 were passenger and 706 cargo).
In 2009 foreign visitors arriving at Dominican airports numbered 1,358,258. In 2010 the number is already at 1.4 million. ‘This policy of open skies, and new bilateral treaties that have been subscribed in the last year have allowed a significant increase to and from the Dominican Republic’, said Mr. Villanueva.
