La Laguna Beach (Dominicus) in Bayahibe, located in the province of La Altagracia, has been awarded the prestigious European Blue Flag International certification. Local hotels participating in the Blue Flag certification program are the Coral Canoa, Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus, Viva Wyndham Dominicus Beach and Palace, and Venta Club Gran Dominicus.
The Blue Flag designation is honors high environmental management and safety standards. It will be displayed in the Caribbean as of November, a first for the region. The Blue Flag international jury also recognized eight other Caribbean beaches and three marinas that proved to adhere to key criteria for water quality, environmental education, environmental management and safety and services.
The Blue Flag panel furthermore approved the applications for Blue Flag certification from two marinas in The Bahamas (Old Bahama Bay and Port Lucaya Marina in Grand Bahama); one beach in the Dominican Republic (La Laguna Beach, Dominicus) in Bayahibe; four beaches and one marina in Jamaica (Doctor?s Cave Bathing Club in Montego Bay, Merrils Resort Beach and Norman Manley Sea Park in Negril, and the Port Antonio Marina and Beach) and four beaches in Puerto Rico (El Escambron and Carolina in the San Juan area, Monserrate in Luquillo and Flamenco Beach in Culebra Island).
?Blue Flag certification means that not only will beach users benefit from high environmental and quality standards, but that the countries stand to gain significantly from the positive attention it will bring in the marketplace, particularly in Europe where Blue Flag has become a well-known and recognized symbol for tourists and tour operators,? said Mercedes Silva, the sustainable tourism specialist at the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
The inaugural season of the Blue Flag campaign in the Caribbean is scheduled to begin in November 2004 and run until October 2005.
For the 2004 European Blue Flag season, which runs from June to October, more than 2,300 beaches and 600 marinas in 24 European countries were recognized by the organization.
Blue Flag is owned and operated by the non-governmental, non-profit organization Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), which has been operating in Europe since 1987 and South Africa since 2001 and is headquartered in Denmark. The beach management and certification program is being administered by the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), in collaboration with the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and the Caribbean Conservation Association (CCA), as part of a Caribbean consortium supported by FEE.
To learn more about the program, see http://www.blueflag.org