The Hotel Association forecasts a drop of 10 to 15% in total hotel occupancy this year. Nevertheless, the Association said that total revenues will be up due to rate increases. The decline in occupancy is attributed to an expected drop from 220,000 to 150,000 arrivals from the United Kingdom. Less British visitors will come this year as a result of negative press the destination received in the UK that focused on hygiene considerations in Dominican hotels. Rumbo news weekly magazine reported that the British press reports on tourists that were allegedly ill with stomach problems after visiting DR can be in part attributed to the fact that British tour operators, that were late in contracting rooms in Dominican hotels to respond to the surge in demand as the DR became the "in" destination for British tourists in 1997, lowered their standards and contracted rooms in bargain priced hotels not taking into consideration these did not offer the appropriate food handling for large groups of visitors. More so, the magazine explained that several tourists took advantage of the situation to, even when not having gotten sick, request a refund for their vacation from the tour operator. Noteworthy is the fact that the boom of the DR destination had directly affected the traditional vacation sites for British tourists, the English-speaking islands of the Caribbean. These islands stood the most to gain from the inflated claims against Dominican health standards. Marino Ginebra, president of the Hotel Association, told Hoy newspaper that hotel occupancy was a high 80% last year and forecast a 70% occupancy rate by year’s end. Ginebra said that the hotel occupancy of the first five months of the year surpassed that of last year, but that the decline in British travelers will be most felt in May and June, the start of the summer season. On the positive side, he said that the hotels are charging higher rates. He explained that while occupancy will be down, profitability will be up. Hotel Association statistics show that during the first five months of the year, air arrivals were 1,116,120 passengers, or 12.66% more in relation to the 990,711 of last year. Of these 842,116 are foreigners, or 15.88% more than last year. From January to May of 1997, some 726,685 visitors came by air. The Hotel Association expects German travelers to reach 385,000, down from the peak year 425,000. Another factor affecting occupancy this year, is that there are almost 3,000 new hotel rooms on the market. Ginebra also explained that Santo Domingo is experiencing an increase in hotel occupancy at the same time that the city hotels are able to charge more for their services. He said that the better city hotels are now charging upwards of US$100 a night, and that occupancy is up 13%. He attributed the increase to the fact that very few new hotel rooms have been added to the city inventory, and that there has been an increase in the number of business travelers to the city. Another factor positively affecting city hotel occupancy is the fact that several major chains that have beach hotels have purchased hotels in Santo Domingo so that their tourists can come on city packages. Ginebra also attributed the increase in stays in Santo Domingo to the promotional campaign carried out by the Dominican government abroad.
