you never heard of anyone going to NYC or miami for a vacation? NYC had 43 million visitors last year,miami about 25 million,,what rock are you living under? people save there whole lives to visit these places..well probably not chicago or detroit but come on now,,be serious..lol
Do me a favor go and knock on the mayor of Miami door and ask which city receives more tourist annually Miami or Chicago???? Why would Chicago have MUCH MORE hotels in and around the city if NOBODY comes to visit???
Miami is a very HUMID RAINY city with a bunch of people trying to act the part. Why in the hell with a family of four got to Miami?? If you ever had a chance to go to Miami you will see it is NOT a family destination, it mostly caters to the single crowd.
I can tell you are a person that DOES NOT travel often, if you think Miami receives more tourists then Chicago. We get a BOAT load of people coming here just because of the" Art Institute of Chicago" from all over the planet.
It is NOT about which city is safer or dangerous. I tell many of my customers thinking about buying in Costa Rica that if you become an expat you will be in a place caught between two worlds. The USA will consider you an expat of Dominican Republic or Costa Rica and CR and DR will consider you American with unlimited resources. The USA embassy job is NOT to protect and see that expats are safe and not harmed no matter what you hear. Once you move to a country you are pretty much off the grid as far as the USA is concerned. If two expats are murder in Santo Domingo very little people would care once they read they had been living in DR for 10 plus years, BUT if a family is murder vacationing in DR then that is a WHOLE NEW BALL GAME.
Once it hit main stream media that an American family died in DR vacationing it will be HUGE as far a people thinking of vacationing in DR.
If you remove all expats from DR it will not decline or improve their economy, but if 50% of tourist stop using DR as a place to recharge their batteries you will see it very clear and CRIME will go through the roof.
The most IMPORTANT people outside of Dominicans in DR are TOURISTS TOURISTS TOURISTS and this is why they do a GREAT job if protecting tourists in the DR for the most part, but expats are really not the CASH CROPS in DR.
You CAN'T compare what and expat bring to the table to what a tourist bring to the table. One cannot be lost, but the other will be no big deal. Safety for expats in DR and safety for tourists is treated as NIGHT and DAY.