Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Latorre said the DR would modify the proposal for a tourism agreement with Haiti to exclude the section on joint promotion and selling of joint travel packages. The Dominican government will sign several agreements with Haiti during the two-day meeting of President Leonel Fernández with President Rene Preval in Port-au-Prince 21-22 June. One of the main intentions of the Dominican government is to help the development of Haiti. Secretary of the Presidency Danilo Medina favors implementing all that will help improve the economy of Haiti. Medina explained that the economic situation of Haiti affects the Dominican Republic. "Anything that our country can do to help improve the material conditions of the Haitians is going to have a positive repercussion for the Dominican Republic," he said. "Both countries are wings of the same bird; the DR cannot fly if Haiti has a broken wing," he said. "We have the most to gain if Haiti can recover from the present situation," he said. "We have to do all we can to help improve the condition of the Haitians." But by selling Haiti and DR as a single destination, the Dominican tourism industry feels it will hardly be able to help Haiti, while at the same time it will be harming the local industry. Arturo Villanueva, executive vice president of the National Hotel & Restaurant Association, that opposed the agreement, said that one cannot promote what does not exist. He said that Haiti does not have a tourism product. Villanueva said that the Association would like to help Haiti design its product, develop it and then get ready to sell it. Tourism consultant Ellis Perez said while that 20 years ago, the island of Hispaniola was better known for Haiti, as Haitian diplomatic representative in the DR Guy Lamothe said last week, today that is no longer the situation. The DR is the Caribbean destination with the most hotel rooms, and has a hard-earned positive image of its own.
