What exactly is the "lesson?"
Haiti's tourism industry was destroyed by the aids epidemic and the CNNs of the world making sure every living soul knew about it. Then in the end it turn out to be false, a huge lie, not true. Somehow the CNNs of the world didn't found it worthy to launch an apology to Haiti for destroying their tourism industry and putting in place a campaign to undo the negative image they had already created.
Having said that, I personally think the tourism industry that once existed in Haiti is grossly exaggerated.
While it was a 'hot spot' in those times, at its peak in 1980 the country received 139,000 tourists by air and 163,000 by sea; for a
total of 302,000. Net expenditures on tourism reached their peak in 1981 at a bare US$44 million (roughly
US$103 million in 2009 dollars). The number of hotel rooms registered in the country was also at its peak in 1981 at only
3,000 rooms. (
Haiti Tourism)
The
Dominican tourism industry is a completely different animal. In 2009, the Dominican Republic received almost 4 million tourists (
http://www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/Sept3Lattab09.pdf).
In even greater detail are the stats
for 2007:
3.8 million visitors.
89% stayed in hotels/resorts.
95% visited for leisure.
Almost 65,000 rooms.
Total expenditure of almost US$3.8 billion.
(
http://www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/2007DRtoHaitCountryStats.pdf)
Focusing back on Haiti; in 2007
Haitian tourism was as follows:
386,060 visitors by air + 482,077 visitors by sea = 868,137
1,758 rooms
37% of visitors by air stayed at a hotel.
31% " " " " " " visited for leisure.
Total expenditure of US$54 million.
(Go to page 69:
http://www.onecaribbean.org/content/files/2007DRtoHaitCountryStats.pdf)
As long as the CNN of the world don't get on an anti-Dominican streak, Dominican tourism has nothing to worry about; at least judging from what caused the collapse of Haitian tourism, the only tourist industry in the Americas to have collapsed in recent memory. The DR doesn't have a disease epidemic, a failed state, or complete idiots ruling the country (of course, there are plenty of idiots in government, but there are also plenty of non-idiots and its because of them that things continue to function).
So I repeat the original question:
What exactly is the "lesson?"