The Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit opened this Sunday, 22 June in Washington, D.C. bringing Caribbean ministers of tourism and key hotel sector executives to the forefront of the attractive Washington, D.C. travel market and policy makers. The DR was represented at the event by its private sector, with three Dominicans on the board of the Caribbean Tourism Development Company (Caribbean Hotel Association private sector side) for the first time. Former president of the National Hotel & Restaurant Association (Asonahores), Enrique de Marchena is the newly appointed co-chairman of the CTDC, Haydee Rainieri of the Puntacana Group is the fourth vice president, and Reyson Pimentel of BlueBay hotels is the regional vice president for the Central Caribbean.
In his opening remarks, De Marchena highlighted the marked desirability of the region for international investors, pointing to continued investment by leading travel companies such as Raffles, Rock Resorts, Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton and Westin.
Allen Chastanet, co-chairman of the government sector in the CDTC stressed the need for governments to fully take on tourism as the region’s most important industry and to come up with more financial support for CDTC activities. CDTC has been pushing the Caribbean branding.
The meeting of Caribbean Hotel Association and Caribbean Tourism Organization under the umbrella of Caribbean Development Tourism Company was moved to Washington, D.C. after President Fernandez met with Allan Chastanet at a New York Counterpart-CMEX press educational meeting. Nevertheless, no one from the Dominican Ministry of Tourism attended the event.