I would like to disagree. I've noticed over the last few years how the Dominican middle class has been growing in size in Santo Domingo. There are some very cool bars and places to eat in the Colonial Zone, and these aren't all packed out with Vicinis and Bonettis, there are plenty of middle class Dominicans. The examples in this article are not great - I assume whoever wrote it didn't do much research - but places like Bio bar on Sanchez, Espiral or Mamey on Mercedes are very trendy, by anyone's standards. And regarding the hotels, the Sheraton, Catalonia, Nicolas d'Ovando and a lot of the boutique hotels are currently in a bit of a price war so you can stay pretty much anywhere for about US$ 100 plus tax. In Miami it costs you about US$ 40 for overnight parking and another US$ 40 for breakfast, before you even think about the cost of the room. So this is a great option for a weekend getaway.
Santo Domingo does attract a lot of US visitors coming over for the weekend. I own a hotel and this is a big part of our business, seriously anything this type of article can do to help promote that is entirely welcome. Even if the population stats are incorrect, the general message is one that we really need to get out there.
I agree with you. Many of my friends working in the tourism industry are now upper class in income level. They do go to the trendy places often.
I think the older members of DR1 are still stuck in the older days where Dominicans could only afford the local colmado.
The article isn't totally spot on but it does reflect current times in SD.