Speaking at the Fodatur tourism congress yesterday, Tuesday 29 October, Luis Emilio Rodriguez Amiama, president of the Hotel & Tourism Association (Asonahores) said that the leading challenge of the industry is to set its priorities in a collective manner and develop ways to restore competitiveness in order to achieve the goal of 10 million tourists by 2022 set by President Danilo Medina.
Rodriguez backs the strategic objectives identified by the Ministry of Tourism that are: appropriateness of the legal framework, make tourism development environmentally sustainable, improve economic competitiveness of tourism companies, increase value added to Dominican destinations, continue to improve infrastructure for better land, air and sea transportation, strengthen the safety of the destinations and promotion.
He said the country need take on the challenge of the changing trends in international tourism and take decisions to adjust our pace if we want to keep what has been achieved, and more so if we aspire to accelerate growth to achieve the set goals.
Rodriguez Amiama spoke at the Dominican Annual Tourism Forum (FODATUR) where objectives, strategies, and planning of the sector take place. The event is being organized by the Dominican Tourism Competitiveness Consortium, which believes that plans and programs need to be adopted by both private and public sectors. He said that pro competitiveness measures would include an inclusive incentives law, fiscal reform to adapt taxation to the realities of regional tourism, manage tourism destinations, improve citizen safety, basic services (power, drinking water, garbage collection) and eliminate the constant increase in city government, indirect and direct taxation that increase the cost of the tourism product.