Synopsis of Playa Dorada & Problems, yet Hope is Eternal
That was a quick trip. I talked to BushBaby a couple of days ago and he told me that you guys hadn't hooked up. He is a great store of info on the North Coast. Anyway, as you can certainly tell from this board, it is easy to be critical of a lot of thigs here in the DR. It is, after all, a poor country with pretensions of being important.
It is not a lack of ideas that has held the place back, but rather a combination of poor political leadership, an expensive and totally useless Armed Forces that sucks the money from more important projects, and a Latin Mentality, well recognized by sociologists that hinders follow through, continual attention to details, and promotes elitist educational processes.
What you saw in Puerto Plata, most probably, was the Playa Dorada Complex, the first planned tourist complex on the North Shore. What started out as an enclave for wealthy folks from Moca, Santiago and Puerto Plata to have their "summer" or "weekend" places on the beach, became a government tourist project. Planned, built and managed by the Central Bank. Therefore, it started with built in deficiencies( Government corruption, favoritism, bureaucratic stupidity) . Jack Tar, Radisson and NACO were the first big hotels in the whole area. Puerto Plata flowered. With good restaurants, shops, things to see and do, it was a really nice place to visit--for a while. Then street gangs of "guides" fought with tour operators for the right to take people around. Service declined, the best operators left for other places. The cruise lines got lower ratings for POP than they did for Cape Haitian! Adios half a dozen cruise liners a week! Jack Tar and the All Inclusive System tempted the hotel administrators to keep the tourists inside the complex. This in turn, prompted in-fighting for clients so rates were lowered to absurd levels, tour operators would fill planes with anything warm and having $300 for two weeks in the sun. Adios good restaurants and entertainments centers. POP died in agony. It was painful
Combine those storylines with a terrible lack of basic public services such as water and lights and you can see why POP has gone down hill as a 5 * destination.
Yet, on the North Coast, in general, the service personnel are outstanding, they want to make the visitor welcome, they want to make them feel at home. I think, in my own limited experience, that they are much nicer than the equivelant personnel on the South Shore.
Is there a future? Of course there is.
When the world economy picks up a bit more this year, I would expect a rise in the flow of tourists. Perhaps not the big spending kind that used to come, but enough of the truck trivers, construction workers, clerks, and other middle income folks to make a difference.
HB
