Joel Santos: «Arrival of tourists in 2021 exceeds expectations»

 Qualifies as excellent work from the public-private sectors

Understand that 2022 will run its course of being a prosperous year

Joel Santos, tourism advisor to the Executive Branch, with roots in the hotel and business sector, explained to arecoa.com that the year ending 2021 was surprising for the Dominican Republic from the tourism point of view because of the recovery in tourist arrivals exceeded the expectations of the entire sector.

“We must recognize the excellent work that was done in coordination between the public and private sectors to achieve the objectives. I believe that there has been a combination of work and optimism that has been reflected in the results reflected by the sector,” he added.

Santos indicated that the aforementioned strong union has managed to keep the sector consolidated and continue working, not only in its conjunctural problems but also that critical efforts are being made to make real the projects proposed in the medium term that are necessary to strengthen the sector at a General level.

“It must be said that the confidence of the private sector in the development of the industry has never ceased, and we have seen it in the number of projects that have been inaugurated in different parts of the country,” he added.

He said that President Luis Abinader and the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, have given to the sector through the Tourism Cabinet has been of great importance.

“Not only with the measures adopted to preserve the health of visitors, but also, through showing real and face-to-face support in the inaugurations of projects, sanitation of tourist poles to project the country in a healthy way to the visitor,” he emphasized.

Santos said that as for the following 2022, he believes that despite the situation caused by the Omicron spill, he remains positive because he understands that tourism is perceived in order. After all, the protocols in place will help maintain the confidence of the tourist.

“The fact that Omicron is presenting actions that are denoted as a setback in the sector, due to the decrease in the flow of flights, it is estimated that everything will pass quickly and that when the normal flow of air transport is resumed, it can supply the demand for the number of tourists who will be arriving in the DR,” he said.

The former president of Asonahores stressed that he understands that 2022 will continue to be a successful year.

It is recalled that the sector registered the arrival of 4,263,259 non-resident visitors in the last eleven months of this year and a historical 519,349 in November alone.

November 2021 registered an improvement of 197% over the same period of 2020, 12% higher than November 2019 and even 7% above November 2018.

In addition, it was highlighted that 73% of the non-residents received from January to November 2019 had been recovered.