Dominican Republic promotes hotel reopening to maintain tourism jobs

The Dominican government and the Dominican Association of Hotels and Tourism (Asonahores) maintain exceptional support to the hotel sector, aiming that the chains based in the country can resume their operations and keep afloat the tourism jobs, which represent more than 500,000 in the DR.

Luis Abinader’s support to the hotel industry has allowed hotel brands such as AMResorts, Bahia Principe, Meliá Hotels, Iberostar, among others, to have significantly advanced the reopening of all their establishments in the country, with some brands currently having fewer than two hotels to open to complete their operational inventory in the country.

According to the president of Asonahores, Rafael Blanco Tejera, the entity he presides is trying to support all the hotel chains to keep their operations open, since “for us, it is important to maintain jobs and productive chains,” he said.

Blanco Tejera assured that the public and private sectors are working together to guarantee the country’s tourism sector’s recovery.

He said that they are communicating with all tourist issuing countries to work together to strengthen the tourist flow.

“We are working because we understand that this situation will pass. The tourism sector is present and will be ready to make the necessary contributions to the Dominican economy,” he said according to Hoy.

Faced with the new covid-19 strain and the closure of some countries due to outbreaks, Blanco limited himself to pointing out that they are working with the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and international organizations.

He also assured that hotel occupancy is strengthened because they promote a strategy of domestic tourism and the responsible opening of the sector in the country.