Due to zero occupancy, most hotels in the Dominican Republic have ceased operations for the moment.
The information source is the Hotel and Tourism Association of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores). The brief explains the international evolution of COVID-19, as well as the measures taken by the Dominican State aimed at protecting the nation, have directly affected the Operation of the tourism sector. The tourism sector depends mainly on the arrival of tourists and investors by air, land, and sea so that, once these borders closed, most hotels have found it necessary to cease operations due to zero occupancy.
“If there are no flights, there can be no tourists. Therefore, the country’s hotels are closing. Arrived on Tuesday, the tourists who are still here must have already left. These are difficult times, and we must seek solutions in the short, medium, and long term for those who work in our sector. Something in which we have been working together with the business community and the authorities,” Paola Rainieri, executive president of Asonahores, told Diario Libre.
Asonahores indicates in the face of this calamity experienced by the world and the Dominican Republic, “we assure that our hotels and related companies have made all the necessary efforts to try to reassign the work, affecting as few workers as possible. For companies in the tourism sector, it is and has consistently been their interest to preserve the continuity of employment contracts, as demonstrated in the 2019 crisis.”
He adds that at present they are working “tirelessly hand in hand with the State, seeking the most viable solution and the protection of families living in the sector.”
“As we have already expressed to the highest levels of the country, Asonahores and its members maintain their will and complete disposition in order to collaborate continuously to overcome this crisis together,” he said.
The tourism sector generates more than 350,000 direct and indirect jobs in the Dominican Republic, and last year hoteliers bought $ 870 million from the Dominican Republic’s agricultural sector.
Employees belonging to the closed hotels got sent home. What is unknown is what precautionary measures these companies took to ensure that these collaborators did not have contact with foreigners or people with the symptoms of COVID-19.