From my mountain top perch on all high, I think that 10 million a year is possible.
However, an incredible new mind-set is needed, and that will be so fooking difficult as to make the goal unreachable:
As the curmudgeon of this board let me say that we have fantastic ideas in this country, but when they cross interests, very well positioned and entrenched interests, these ideas go NOWHERE!
Only IF the government/Tourism promotes the total expansion of tourism all over the DR, will they achieve the capacity to receive 10 million tourists a year. Look at it like this:
Santo Domingo Colonial Zone can handle say 3 or 4 million tourists a year if they are run thru there almost on a conveyor belt. Remember that the Colonial Zone was inhabited by just a few thousands at its best!! So how can you accommodate millions?? YOU can't, no matter how you say you can....It would be wall to wall tourists and that would take away its beauty and essence. Yes, the planning and the transportation of these masses would be interesting exercises for Industrial Engineers and City Planners for a few years: Aquarium-Columbus Lighthouse (it has to work at night!!)-Colonial Zone-Botanical Gardens-Zoo-Some restaurants and back on the boat...
In the meantime, places like La Romana, Samana, Montecristi and Puerto Plata need to be up-graded to receive hundreds of thousands, so help me here: What does each have to offer 400,000 tourists a year? Be serious now...
-La Romana: Beaches, but not the best; Free Zone, Casa de Campo; Cueva de las Maravillas...and?????????
-Samana': Beaches, some of the most beautiful around but Rincon--the MOSTest beautiful is nearly inaccessible and totally un developed (Thank God!! The question then is:Should we develop this paradise??); Las Galeras is a 45 minute ride and El Limon is another trip...So what can we offer people there outside of Whale Watching Season that is so different from all the other places in the Caribbean?
-Montecristi: Whoa! Okay we can take them two days a week and expose them to dengue, malaria and cholera infected Haitians (not all but certainly some); the salt pans, always a nice show; the beach at El Morro where the wind whips up so much sand that you are exfoliated for free and your sunglasses are dulled to unusable by the sandblasting.....oh, they could go on treasure dives if the French divers want to give it up....hehehe!
-Puerto Plata: There is the fort, the Ambar Museum, the Glorieta in the Park (with musicians it would be nicer), Golf at Playa Dorada, the Fun City place is interesting but not unique; Beach at Long Beach sucks, so Sosua gets a big play, and maybe even Cabarete for the stronger and adventurous.
I have not mentioned anything to or in the Southwest which is so awesomely beautiful that I hesitate to suggest it. However, it is totally unprepared for a tourist onslaught.
Okay, are we clear? The goal is achievable. But is (1) is the capital city ready to NOT be the almighty center of everything? (2) Can the government come up with the money to improve water, waste removal and other basic-basic services? (3) Can private investors/government funding be found to equip each of these possible destinations with what they need to receive hundreds of thousands of tourists per year? (4) Would a serious analysis of these destinations show that they are, in fact, attractive to more than a niche demographic? And you know there are more questions than answers at this point.
Thanks for reading this and thinking about all of this...the whole thing is incredibly more complex than we can imagine. (A scatological example: De we even have the sanitary facilities to accommodate the body wastes of an additional 10 million people? in Montecristi? POP, Samana'??? Sorry, I don't think so....not even places as neat and clean as gas station restrooms in North Carolina!! Reference that famous letter of a Marine recruit sent back home
HB