The Asociación pro Desarrollo de Boca Chica, the principal tourist organization in that seaside town, which is about 20 minutes east of Santo Domingo, has been active organizing the beach so that locals and tourists can fully enjoy what it has to offer. Luís Felipe Aquino, executive director of the organization, said that the Defensa Civil considers Boca Chica to be a model of beach organization, especially at times of peak usage, such as during Holy Week. The beach at Boca Chica, unlike many others frequented by tourists, is openly public, and the local hotels and businesses have endeavored to encourage a balanced mix of visitors.
Mr Aquino says that the area has been under constant expansion with the Hamaca adding 253 new rooms last year, with another 457 planned. Boca Chica Resort also added 52 to its 273 rooms. In Boca Chica there are 19 hotels, 16 guest houses, 8 villas and 3 apart-hotels, making a total of 1137 rooms in hotels, 117 rooms in guest houses, 91 rooms in villas and 53 in apart-hotels. The average hotel has 30 rooms.
The Association now has plans to spruce up the area encouraging residents to paint their houses, now that the streets have been resurfaced, and the pavements are back. Work is also underway on the improvement of green areas.
The principal restaurants are the Neptuno, Casa Marina, Porto Fino, L’Horizon, Pequeña Suiza, and the new restaurant opened by the D’Alessandro’s at their family home near the popular Neptuno. Interestingly, the town’s restaurants are able to attract many from Santo Domingo who travel to Boca Chica for dinner or have lunch during a weekend outing to the beach.
The restaurants have also developed a good enough reputation to be included on the agenda of the tourists staying at the all-inclusive hotels, despite the additional cost. Luis Aquino also said there are many small guest houses, villas and apart-hotels that they have helped provide the restaurants with good turnovers.
He added that Boca Chica has the country’s highest occupancy rate. He said that most tourists staying there this year come from Britain, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina.
He mentioned that Boca Chica has been able to do so well because it started off as an established beach resort, and investors took the homes of the wealthy and turned them into guest houses and, as for the Hamaca hotel, they did not destroy it, but built a larger hotel around the nucleus of the old one.