PR losing tourism to DR due to alarming crime rate.

May be that tourist sare more careful with spending. PR is expensive in all aspect compared to the DR (the only thing cheaper is the airfare).

Not a surprise. One visit to PR was all it took for me to not want to go back and it had nothing to do with the crime rate.

Something that The DR should learn from and employ a heavy hand if needed to make sure tourists are safe and feel safe, so we don't end up killing the "goose the golden eggs". We are just lucky at this point that in places like Jamaica, Mexico and PR the crime rate is a lot worse, but we're headed that way unless we do something to stop it. If only our fearless "leaders" realized how important it is to make sure each and every tourist has a pleasant experience...Every satisfied tourist may not rave about The DR, but every dissatisfied one will rant about it, tell his/her friends (potential customers), post it on the web for everyone to see and probably won't come back to visit.

My wife's cousin and his girlfriend were in PR not long ago and he says he will never go back as the place he was staying at the staff was arrogant and downright rude and they found it to be very overpriced for what you get. Now I know that PR is not ALL like that, but it only takes one experience like that to make the unseasoned traveler not want to go back. I suggested next time try The DR...

Really Windeguy ? I don't know, I like both places.

I know many people who were disappointed by PR because it is not exotic enough, but other than that it is a beautiful place and I found people friendly.

Let's see. What did not impress me about the north coast of PR? The beaches, the food which is just as bland as Dominican food if not more so, the terrain, the architecture of the houses, and the shopping. The rain forest trip was OK, but seriously I have no desire to go there again.

Windeguy, I'm realy surprised to hear that. To me, PR was like DR, just with cleaner streets and more ethnic food...

PR is really boring during the week. On the weekends, is when it rocks.

Even though I am from PR, I would rather vacation in DR.

windeguy said:

Let's see. What did not impress me about the north coast of PR? The beaches, the food which is just as bland as Dominican food if not more so, the terrain, the architecture of the houses, and the shopping. The rain forest trip was OK, but seriously I have no desire to go there again.

Click to expand...

Dominican food bland?
Where you?ve been eating?

I'm thinking of trying out Vieques. Lots of ex-mainlanders and ex-pats from Europe and only about 5000 ppl on the island. Not much commercial development yet. I've got a friend who's been there a year now.

Believe it or not things are much worse in the Virgin Islands. It makes the DR look good.

I was in PR back in 06 or 07 when they had the goverment shut down it was tense after 3 day's I had enough and flew home ,I can stay in Jersey and get treated bad for free.

johnny said:

Dominican food bland?
Where you?ve been eating?

Click to expand...

I find Dominican food bland also....but I am comparing it to foods from Jamaica and Trinidad. Bring on the heat.

I have driven from Humacao to Aguadilla without incident. Unless of course you count the unexplained burning car in the middle of the road just outside Fajardo. Other than that, I had a great time in PR.

johnny said:

Dominican food bland?
Where you?ve been eating?

Click to expand...

johnny, Dominican food is so bland I began to call the DR "The Island that Spice Forgot". I have been living here full time since 2003 and I have never found any Dominican style food with any zip to it besides "Chivo Picanto" which is about a 3 on the spice scale. When the main spice added is Maggi (salt) or Saison Complete (salt again), you don't get much spice but you sure do get a lot of salt.

If I were to give some food spiced at the level I occasionally like to eat it to a local, most Dominicans would face severe distress. Yes there is some good food here, but it is still what I consider bland. Think about Indian, Thai, Malaysian or Sri Lankan cooking and there is nothing here that compares to it.

Lived in PR during the 90s.
South and west coasts are ok.
Women are hugely fat and ugly and wear electro-glo nehi colored leotards.
Yeeeeesh!

It's the costs that drive tourists from Puerto Rico and to the DR, nothing else. The nicer beach hotels in San Juan run at $250-$300 and up with taxes and fees included, and they are NOT all inclusive. You get charged outrageous amounts for food, drinks, etc. on top of that. Comparably, you can get a very nice all inclusive resort in Punta Cana with nicer beaches and people who don't hate your guts for far less, especially when food and booze is figured in. There is no way that an island that must follow U.S. labor laws, including minimum wage, can compete on cost with a country that pays hotel workers less than $200 a month and does not have to import as much of it's staple food products.

I actually think PR is quite nice. I see it as a cleaner, wealthier, more modern, and very Americanized version of the DR. Old San Juan, which was dilapidated and very dangerous in the 70's and early 80's, is now fixed up beautifully, and should serve as a model for the Zona Colonial in Santo Domingo. The beaches in the city are clean and nice for urban beaches. There is tons to do in the city day and night. More beautiful, secluded beaches are a few hours drive away. And, of course, there is Vieques and Culebra. Absolutely stunning places. Vieques is very rural, very old Caribbean. Playa flamenco and Playa Zoni on Culebra are among the most beautiful beaches in the world. All easily reach on a 20 minute, 9 passenger commercial flight from San Juan.

My son made a Curry Chicken soup the other day and my wife loved it but mymother-in-law wouldn't eat it because she said it was too hot( probably mad because he's a better cook than her) . Having said that she often adds ginger,paprika, and hot pepper sauce to her soups and chicken.

Puerto Rico may be losing some of its tourists, but I doubt they are losing them to the DR.

First, most tourists to PR don't even stay in hotels and I doubt most stay in villas either. It seems to point towards a tourism largely based on Puerto Ricans and descendants on the mainland visiting their homeland. Not that they can't visit the DR, but the DR certainly lacks, at least for most, the one thing PR has and that is family members.

Second, of the tourists that do stay in hotels, average stays are of 2 or 3 nights. It appears that most non-Puerto Rican tourists tend to visit PR due to some cruise they plan to take out of San Juan. I can't think of another reason why average hotel stays are so low in PR. They visit the island to get on a cruise and in the mean time, visit the sights within the San Juan area. Since the DR is not a major cruise home port, despite the development of Sans Souci in Santo Domingo, I doubt the cruise traffic is shifting out of PR towards the DR. It could very well be shifting from PR to Miami.

Third, most tourist hotels in PR are lined up on the Condado and Isla Verde beaches in San Juan. There are a few megaresorts outside of the San Juan area, such as the Rio Mar complex I think is in Dorado and a few other complexes out in the Fajardo area on the eastern tip. But overall, these complexes are few and far between. The bulk of PR tourism takes place in the two San Juan beaches already mentioned and, while nice beaches, they are not true competition for beaches like Punta Cana or even Playa Dorada. Even in PR, you will find nicer beaches away from San Juan. My point is that if beach competition was the major draw of tourists from PR to DR, this shift would had happened a long time ago, with or without crime in PR.

And lastly, Dominican tourism functions and targets a completely different market segment then does PR tourism. Its ironic, but the two systems are almost incompatible. Dominican tourism has more in common with tourism in Jamaica, the Bahamas, but especially Cuba. Also the Cancun-Mexican Riviera in Mexico is a strong rival. But I think Cuba is the biggest true competitor, mostly because its an All-Inclusive model that depends almost entirely on the European and Canadian market; similar to the DR except we have the American market as well. PR, Cancun (heck, all of Mexico), Jamaica, Bahamas, Aruba etc are dominated by Americans to a degree not seen in the DR and, minus PR, they are predominantly all-inclusive destinations as well. The rest of the Caribbean I think is a non-issue since they are not predominantly all-inclusive and in so many of the smaller islands, the dominanting tourist nationality tends to be the former colonialists (the French dominate tourism in Martinique and Guadaloupe, to give one example.)

PR and DR tourism are like water and vinegar, IMO.

Having said that, I do remember having read a few weeks ago an article in which some sort of cooperation is going to be tried between the two islands. Its suppose to be some sort of marketing ploy to present both islands as one destination. I don't think it will work mostly for reasons already expressed here, but we'll see...