Tony C said:
None of the countries you listed rely on tourism as their primary industry.
This can be discussed for a few of them. But anyway, most of them consider mass tourism as a major industry.
Tony C said:
Tourism's drawbacks are many.
Its Seasonal. For part of the year its good. The rest of the years the cash flow slows.
Tourism is not the solution, it's part of it. It's seasonal, OK. Many industries are, and live with that. It might be difficult to find Easter eggs in December, some manufacturers do with that. What about Toys'r us? If you export organic mangoes, I guess you have to be patient with the tree. If you export swimming suits from a free zone, don't you have a low season?
The seasonality in tourism is due to weather conditions and holidays schedule. One advantage the DR has it that you have high temperatures all year round. If a resort was catering especially for senior citizens, it might be full from November to August. Maybe some do that already in DR?
Tony C said:
It's Regional. In the D.R.'s Case it centers around certain Beach areas.
True. So what? It's still better. What kind of industries would you like to set up in Cabarete, Cabrera, Samana, Bavaro, La Romana? Ca?a? plus, the more tourists you'll attract on the shores, the more tourists will like to enter inside the country on the long term, provided there is an adequate offer.
Tony C said:
Doesn't provide quality jobs. The vast Majority of Jobs in the tourism industry are in the low-paying service sector. Not the Kind of jobs you want to depend on to build a middle class in your nation.
Undeniably true. And that is a fairly good opportunity to give undereducated Dominicans a job. When these people get a steady job, they don't have que buscarsela, and one child of them (or more) has a chance to be better educated, and apply for or create better jobs.
Tony C said:
Subject to too many outside forces. Weather, War, Terrorism, politics all can effect tourism negatively. All you need is a minor Hurricane to hit the east coast and that would deal a severe blow to tourism in the D.R. that would take months to recover. Manufacturing, for example, could be up and back running in Days.
OK, true. but I think a bit exaggerated for 'the minor hurricane'. Samana and the North are more protected. As for manufacturing, I guess it also has drawbacks. The 'caribbean dream' is a competitive advantage for the DR tourism industry. Where is the advantage for manufacturing? If you manufacture for the local market, and provided you are not in an industry where scale is paramount, you have many. But if you want to export? Low costs? Who do you want to compete with? Mexican maquiladoras with low salaries only a few hours drive from US markets? Chinese factories where a pound of rice has only 3 grains?
I like the upscale tourism because it gives good promotion for the cheaper customers, wealthy tourists build nice villas and I like to see nice villas, I like the mass tourism because it gave the DR a net inflow of 2 billion USD last year, because most of the tourists come back happy and that give a good image from the country.
It can also help promoting other goods from DR. For instance, when a woman on a market in Vancouver or London sees a papaya "FROM DOMINICAN R." she might remember the fruit orgy she had in a resort in Bavaro and buy the fruit for that reason.
Barnab?