DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

Frank Rainieri is recognized as a prophet, forerunner, precursor, and tourism genius. He began bringing tourists to Punta Cana more than 50 years ago and has never looked back. His airport, Punta Cana International (PUJ), is the busiest in the Caribbean, and the tourist destination he created at Punta Cana grows every year. Last week he said that the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic is under “an unstoppable process” and that it will not be long before all of the country becomes a tourism destination. He set the bar at 17 million tourists by the year 2035.

As the keynote speaker at the breakfast conference hosted by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Santo Domingo, Francisco Ozoria, Rainieri pointed out that such an achievement would require vision, work and the support of the many different sectors of the nation. He spoke of the very slow start in the 1970s, when there...