Cesar Castaneda, director of operations for the World Tourism Organization’s World Center of Excellence for Destinations (CED), is encouraging the DR to take the leadership in the Caribbean and adopt the System for Measuring Excellence in Destinations (SMED) that will be launched in June 2008. Castaneda took part in the Under the Same Roof workshop, organized by the Dominican Sustainable Tourism Alliance last weekend, attended by tourism stakeholders from tourism clusters in Samana, Puerto Plata, La Altagracia, Romana-Bayahibe, Santo Domingo, Pedernales, Barahona, Constanza and Jarabacoa as well as government and private organizations.
The event was organized by the National Competitiveness Council.
A new CED service, SMED has the objective of encouraging destinations to make themselves known as destinations of excellence by means of a measurement system based on reliable, expert-validated criteria. SMED evaluates geographic aspects, services, government and each destination specific activities. Castaneda is a former director of the Mexico Tourism Board in Canada.
See: www.ced.travel/en