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Santo Domingo.- Tourism Minister David Collado assured on Thursday that the situation in neighboring Haiti has not affected the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic.
“To this day, the unfortunate situation that our neighboring country of Haiti is going through has not affected the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic,” the official said.
While leading the presentation of the tourism sector’s results for February, Collado said that Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez is the one who has to respond about the airlift proposed by the United Nations (UN) to help Haiti.
It is recalled that the Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, resigned from his position, amid the wave of violence in the Caribbean country, reported the President of Guyana and current President of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Irfaan Ali, after an extraordinary session on the situation in Haiti with representatives from several countries in Jamaica.
Former Haitian rebel leader Guy Philippe rejected the agreement of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), which seeks to create a presidential council to lead a transition and hold elections in Haiti.
Philippe considered that “the international community, through Caricom, has decided to ridicule the Haitian people.”
Record numbers
According to the Minister of Tourism, 1,057,216 visitors arrived in the Dominican Republic in February, marking the figure as a “record.” Collado specified that 755,832 tourists came by air and 301,384 by cruise ship.
I beg to differ. Arrivals may be what they are, but people are becoming afraid to leave resorts. This is clearly obvious in my business and observations around Punta Cana. The number of emails I receive expressing concern is on the rise, Leaving the resort leaves real “people money” in the country. Staying on the resort puts it in the government’s hand and those who own the companies in other countries.
But is it safe? Leaving the resort is always dangerous, but now I guess danger and fear have increased. Are the hotel authorities taking security measures?