The development of tourism is an unstoppable process and in a few years the entire country will be a tourist destination, predicted the experienced tourism businessman Frank Rainieri, who also proposed that by the year 2035 the objective should be to receive 17 million tourists.
“In a few years the entire country will be a tourist destination. Achieving this has not been easy and staying at the top will require a lot of vision, work and support from the different sectors of national life,” he said when participating as a guest speaker at the Breakfast Conference of the Archbishopric of Santo Domingo, with the presence of the archbishop. Metropolitan Monsignor Francisco Osoria.
Rainieri explained that the beginning of tourism in the 70s was slow because it was a little-known activity but it gained space and cited the historian Frank Moya Pons, who in his analysis of the evolution of the country in the period 1963-2013 stated that “tourism “It has become the main generator of foreign currency and one of the most powerful factors of change that the country has had in its entire history.”
He considered that this assessment by Frank Moya Pons in 2013 “remained in history and since then the growth has been unstoppable, even with global crises such as Covid, the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza.”
Rainieri defined tourism as “a social, cultural and economic phenomenon that has generated a multi-billion dollar global industry. And for our country it has been the great leap in development, going from being a small agrarian economy to a global tourism giant. Like everything in life, it has its flaws and problems, but it is in our hands to take advantage of the good and improve the bad.”
He pointed out that, in 2023, tourism contributed US$9,828 million to the Dominican economy, while exports from the other parts of the economy were 11,933 million, according to preliminary figures from the Central Bank.
He stated that the joint work of the hotel sector, the Ministry of Tourism, President Luis Abinader, the support of the Verón – Punta Cana Community, has achieved double-digit growth in the Punta Cana area and that those almost 50,000 rooms hotel companies generate between 14 and 16% of the country's gross domestic product, 93,000 direct jobs and approximately 323,000 indirect jobs.
Tourism expands throughout the country
Rainieri highlighted that 2024 will arrive with 50,000 rooms in the Punta Cana – Miches area; with Bayahíbe and La Romana as consolidated destinations; In the north, Puerto Plata with two Cruise terminals and the tourist real estate project in Bergatín, and Cabarete continues to grow.
In the northeast, he noted, Samaná will soon have two cruise ports and the northern part of the peninsula is increasing the number of rooms. In the south, Pedernales will be on the tourism world map in the coming years, in Baní the development of Puntarena and other projects continues and in Barahona a Cruise terminal is being built.
In Santiago, Jarabacoa and Constanza, he said, “important tourist niches are beginning to be created and the city of Santo Domingo, in the process of renovation, will become a great tourist destination. In a few years the entire country will be a tourist destination. Achieving this has not been easy and staying at the top will require a lot of vision, work and support from the different sectors of national life.”
Rainieri, founder of the Puntacana Group and promoter of the development of the Punta Cana destination, pointed out that the “important thing now is to define where we are going because it is not about achieving success but about maintaining it and this is always more difficult,” and explained to the Group Puntacana this translates into a series of investment initiatives “under the understanding that companies have an important commitment to the society that supports them and allows them to exist and develop, they must be a positive and constructive partner that contributes to the society that supports them.” welcome.”