In the Spanish newspaper ABC the founder of the Punta Cana Group addresses in an extensive interview the tourist situation in the Dominican Republic and in the world. The Spanish medium has given Frank Rainieri Cover attention and two pages of information in a very prominent place. The Dominican businessman has dissected in the interview with John Muller, a distinguished journalist specializing in economics, the deep knowledge he has about the tourism industry and the economic world.
In that sense, Rainieri He emphasized that he believes and trusts that humanity will continue to travel, “because the middle class in the world continues to grow, and when people reach the middle class, one of their priorities is to know what they have seen on television.”
He indicated that despite the paralysis (due to Covid-19) that affected the tourism sector worldwide, the Dominican Republic knew how to handle the situation and at the same time served as learning for the other sectors of the economy to recognize the value of tourism.
“The pandemic paralyzed us, but in the Dominican Republic – it sounds ugly to say it – it was a blessing, because for the first time, the rest of the sectors of the national economy realized the importance of tourism. Until then they saw us as something marginal and suddenly, the industrialists realized that 20% of their consumption was represented by hotels, farmers the same, transporters, the government, “he added.
The tourism businessman said that the attitude of all sectors after Covid-19 in relation to tourism is different.
He recalled that “that being said, the pandemic paralyzed us, but we were the first to come out of Covid.”
The manager explained that this was done by uniting the public and private sectors in campaigns. “And we quickly opened the door to the tourist. Eight months after the pandemic was declared, we were receiving tourists in Punta Cana. And the Government cleverly promoted that Dominicans could visit tourist sites with special discounts. In this way, hotels began to open, people began to have jobs, to demand agricultural products, etc.