The Dominican government has assigned US$50,000 to the Ministry of Tourism for a first payment against the debt the Ministry has incurred with the World Tourism Organization, the principal body that groups the tourism departments of the governments of the world. The total balance owed is said to be three times that amount. The payment is the second against arrears on membership fees that the country has traditionally maintained under the Balaguer governments.
The government paid off its debt to the Caribbean Tourism organization in April, a sum of US$80,000. Frank Jorge Elías, Minister of Tourism, said that with the payment one of the principal objectives of his administration at the Ministry had been accomplished. “I am satisfied because the country now has an improved image at the level of the international tourism organizations, and that permits us to participate more easily in the global development of tourism.”
He said that from 1984 the country has only been a symbolic figure in the WTO and the CTO, on the sidelines of all the plans carried out by those organizations. He said that the decision to pay now places the country in a good condition to maintain its tourist development and consolidate its position as the premier holiday destination in the Caribbean.