The Executive Vice President of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES), Arturo Villanueva, worried aloud yesterday that the widely reported LMD struggle and associated scenes of violence and disorder might harm the DR’s tourism industry this winter and spring. In a presentation yesterday of the 1998 results for the sector, Villanueva reminded politicians that one of the DR’s principal assets in attracting tourists has been its image of peace and warm hospitality; they should reflect on that and seek a more harmonious solution to the LMD problem. Today’s Hoy newspaper claims that information it has obtained shows that 40,000 reservations for DR vacations have already been canceled in Spain alone in response to the political crisis. ASONAHORES, however, claims that its check of hotels does not reveal any significant impact in the form of cancellations, although it cautions that the full impact cannot yet be assessed, since it may come in the form of many tourists simply not choosing the DR as the site for their vacation in the first place.
