Travellers tips for the Dominican Republic

kahbell

New member
Aug 18, 2003
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www.tourismconcern.org.uk
Dear Friends,

I work for Tourism Concern, a charity in the UK that campaigns for ethical and fair trade in tourism and I wondered whether you could help me. I am putting together research in order to produce Dominican Republic-specific travellers tips for visitors to these countries. They will aim to cover the most important positive, practical advice involving the environmental, cultural and economic impact of tourists within the Dominican Republic.

Examples of this are:

Environmental: keeping water use to a minimum, not buying natural souvenirs, keeping waste to a minimum, using local resources as conservatively as possible.

Cultural: keeping to local dress codes and being sensitive to local customs, asking permission before taking photographs, learning a few phrases of the local language

Economic: buy locally made and grown goods and use local services, paying a fair price for goods, being aware of local attitudes to begging.

These tips will be compiled by receiving feedback from people/organisations involved in some way in oturism in hte Dominican Republic. I was hoping that you may be able to give us some feedback and/or forward me email addresses of contacts who you think may be able to give us some advice.

The feedback we are trying to get is centred around:

? Information and facts on the types of tourism and general points which you feel would be most useful/relevant in creating a code that tourists follow.

? Possible ways tourists can reduce/alter their impact and reasons why.

If you need any more information then please let me know.
My email address is: kelly@tourismconcern.org.uk

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Kelly Haynes
 

Peter & Alex

Bronze
May 3, 2003
700
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www.rainbowsenddr.com
A Can of Worms!!

It's much too diverse a subject and much too diverse a country to be able to be specific on any points for tourists!
It's a lovely place to visit and to live - paradise with bugs sometimes - but we all love it. Locals are very friendly, too friendly sometimes and don't have hang ups with the tourists and we need the tourist dollar despite the damage tourism can do to local culture etc., etc!
The All Inclusives contribute little to the local economy but suit a great number of visitors looking for a cheap package at a resort. They are generally not encouraged to go out and see the rest of this great country but that's not really their fault?
Begging is frowned upon but it does happen in some areas but in a small way.
Dress code - depends where you are? You wouldn't want to wear a bikini in SD but here in Cabarete it's all you will see, even on the street - but then we are a one street beach town! Local wear is much the same around the beach areas but not for business or going to the bank etc.
Hell, you could go on and on for hours about this subject.
Best advice for tourists? Probably for someone in your position is to come on down for 2-3 weeks and meet everyone here - bring a really big shorthand notepad and see for yourself!! I personally don't believe that you can do your thing from so far away???
By the way - what does the "Charity" get out of this?
 

kahbell

New member
Aug 18, 2003
3
0
0
www.tourismconcern.org.uk
Reply to Pete and Alex

Dear Pete and Alex,

The charity that I work for is called Tourism Concern (www.tourismconcern.org.uk)
and campaigns for fair and ethical tourism and against human rights abuses relating to tourism. Tourism is the biggest industry in the world and is completely unregulated meaning that in many countries only 90% of the income from this does not remain in the destination. We campaign to make tourism more sutainable and beneficial to local people.

We do this by:
A) raising public awareness of the issues in tourism and to try and encourage tourists/travellers to realise their impact and to be responsible for changing/ reducing negative impacts. Producing travellers tips is one way of doing this.

B) Extensive lobbying/liaising with the tourism industry in the UK.

C) Research into tourism and producing education resources (including a vast library of tourism resources).

D) Extensive networking throughout the world with people/organsiations involved in tourism.


Our Director has recently been to the Dominican Republic on a research trip, however we are not trying to conclude what WE think are the impacts of tourism and ways tourists can improve this, but are trying to involve as many stakeholders as possible to participate in giving us their expert views, including people who live and work in the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic. We want to create a well rounded list of travellers tips which incorporate opinions from a range of sources.

Thanks for your comments and I hope this has cleared up any confusion.
 

Kay

New member
Jul 8, 2003
94
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0
Presidente

Yep, It's a big subject. So, a starting piont is...
Presidente beer, local product. In small quanities and interspersed with bottled water, very good for dehydration. MGB, imported American beer.

I also liked fresh Coconut and Colmados, corner cafe's.
Just another tourist, with little experience,
-k
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
What not to buy

Anything made of Carey (sea turtle)

Lobster out of season (April to September, I think)

Conch out of season



Things to buy

Ambar, lorimar jewlery

Local Beers and cigarettes

Local cigars, not counterfeit Cuban brands

Art by local artists..

Food-to die for

Local sweets: fudge, cakes, fruit preserves

Soft drinks and bottled water

Toothpaste

Kites



Begging

Generally frowned upon by one and all. A wave of the index finger like a windscreen siper is sufficient.


Clothes

Only prostitutes wear really "daring" clothes

Hip huggers and short t-shirts are acceptable

Men wear long pants-jeans and khakis or suits, depending on occasion. Collared shirts are normal, T-shirts for young crowd.


Suggestion: buy a copy of Ritmo Social in the List?n diario on Saturdays and see what middle and upper class folks wear. Look at the pictures in the paper to see what less wealthy wear.


HB