Rainieri: “In a few years the whole country will be a tourist destination”

Tourism businessman Frank Rainieri has indicated that the sector’s development is an unstoppable process, and in a few years, the entire country will be a tourist destination. He also proposed that by the year 2035, the goal should be to receive 17 million tourists.

“In a few years the whole country will be a tourist destination. Achieving this has not been easy and keeping us at the top will require a lot of vision, work and support from the different sectors of national life,” he said while participating as a guest speaker at the Breakfast Conference of the Archbishopric of Santo Domingo, with the presence of Metropolitan Archbishop Francisco Osoria.

Rainieri explained that the beginning of tourism in the DR in the 1970s was slow because it was a little-known activity. Still, it gained space. He quoted historian Frank Moya Pons, who, in his analysis of the country’s evolution from 1963 to 2013, stated that “tourism has become the main generator of foreign exchange and one of the most powerful factors of change that the country has had in its entire history.”

He considered that Frank Moya Pons’ assessment in 2013 “remained for history and since then the growth has been unstoppable, even having world crises such as the Covid, the war in Ukraine and the one in Gaza.”

He defined tourism as “a social, cultural and economic phenomenon that has generated a multi-billion dollar global industry. And for our country it has been the great leap to development, going from being a small agrarian economy to a world tourism giant. Like everything in life, it has its flaws and problems, but it is in our hands to take advantage of the good and improve the bad.”

He pointed out that, in 2023, tourism contributed US$9,828 million to the Dominican economy, while exports from other sectors of the economy were US$11,933 million, according to preliminary figures from the Central Bank”.

The founder of the Puntacana Group stated that the joint work of the hotel sector, the Ministry of Tourism, President Luis Abinader, and the support of the Veron-Punta Cana Community has achieved double-digit growth in the Punta Cana area and that these almost 50,000 hotel rooms generate between 14 and 16% of the country’s gross domestic product, 93,000 direct jobs and approximately 323,000 indirect jobs.

Tourism is expanding throughout the country.

Rainieri emphasized that 2024 arrives with 50,000 rooms in the Punta Cana-Miches zone, with Bayahibe and La Romana as consolidated destinations; in the north, Puerto Plata with two cruise terminals and the real estate tourism project in Bergatín, and Cabarete continues to grow.

He pointed out that in the northeast, Samaná will soon have two cruise ports, and the northern part of the peninsula is increasing the number of rooms. In the south, Pedernales will be on the world tourism map in the next few years. In Baní, the development of Puntarena and other projects continues, and in Barahona, a cruise terminal is being built.

In Santiago, Jarabacoa, and Constanza, he said, “Important tourist niches are beginning to be created, and the city of Santo Domingo, in the process of renovation, will become a great tourist destination.