Stefan Meister of Ocean World Marina Park & Casino is calling for action to follow the discussions to boost Puerto Plata as a leading Caribbean vacation destination. He pointed out that his company had recently invested in new giant waterslides, a major attraction for the domestic market, as an example of willingness to innovate to respond to the market. In the keynote speech of the POP Discover event in Cofresi, Puerto Plata, Meister mentioned that travel to Puerto Plata had declined from a peak million visitors ten years ago to just 300,000 last year. He urged the government to expand the Santiago-Puerto Plata highway to four lanes, to reduce travel time to half an hour. He said the destination competes with Punta Cana and Samana, both of which have brand new highways and are therefore much more accessible.
He also said the government needed to move ahead and grant all the permits Carnival Corporation needs for the cruise port off Maimon. The port is scheduled to open in 2014.
?Change is the only constant in the world,? he stressed. He said that Puerto Plata and the north coast needed to change, or else risk disappearing as a tourist destination.
Speaking at an event organized by the Puerto Plata Tourism & Cultural Cluster, Meister urged hoteliers to modernize their hotels and to find new alternatives and markets, while calling on tour operators to renew their vehicle fleets and the quality of their excursions, and for all to play their part in revitalizing tourism in the region.
Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia highlighted the plusses of Puerto Plata, including the Ocean World Park, the cable car, the seafront boulevard and the city itself.
The minister added that President Medina has told him that the first major infrastructure work to be carried out in his government would be the Puerto Plata-Navarrete highway.