During his closing remarks for the World Tourism Organization-sponsored Seminar on Tourism Destinations Management of Cultural Heritage Sites held in Santo Domingo on 17-18 February, the secretary general of the World Tourism Organization spoke as a convert to Dominican hospitality.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure, absolute pleasure… We felt part of this country, part of the new spirit of this country, you made us all feel Dominicans, thank you all!” he said. Taleb Rifai spoke highly of the local commitment to tourism, reflected by President Danilo Medina participating in a meeting to discuss tourism as a tool for development in the country.
“I see the transformation this country has taken, the decision to move from the concept of sun and beach and integrated resorts to integrated development all together,” said Rifai.
He predicted even better times ahead for the Dominican tourism industry with the turn to programs that highlighted culture. “We have seen yesterday and today the determination to turn the success story the DR already has into another level of success,” he said. “I am sure that three to five years from now we will come to the number one cultural destination in the world,” he said. “And we will be able to say we were here when it first happened,” he said, referring to what he described as “going from resorts to total development.”
“Yesterday we saw a new face of this country, of the people, a face that always existed but we had not seen it and came to experience it first-hand,” he stated.
“We will be your best ambassador all over the world,” he promised.