The National Hotels & Tourism Association (Asonahores) announced the creation of a US$5 million Tourism Promotion Fund. Asonahores president Paola Rainieri made the announcement during the American Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday, 23 October 2019. Rainieri explained the funds will be used to promote eastern beach destinations. The promotion fund is to complement actions carried out by the Ministry of Tourism. The Punta Cana area was hit by a rash of reports on the deaths of US tourists that resulted in a downward trend in bookings. A FBI toxicology report later disputed the rumors of tainted alcohol or toxic fumigation practices, but already hundreds of bookings of hotel stays, weddings and meetings affected the destination mainly in mid-year. Tourists, nevertheless, have benefited by the price discounting that came with the cancellations.
Rainieri stressed that the destination has turned a positive out of the negative. She said Asonahores is focused on the incorporation of state of the art technology to offer enhanced security for the tourist and urban areas in coordination with the Specialized Tourism Security Corps (Cestur) and 911. “I firmly believe that the difficulties of these days are fleeting and will leave us stronger,” she said.
She added the industry has been working on creating a crisis management committee within Asonahores to improve the capacity of the country to respond to similar events. Other measures implemented are the quarterly inspecting of hotels instead of twice a year; installation of additional surveillance videos in hotel public areas; requiring resorts to post emergency contact information in every guest room; improved medical facilities located inside hotels; and the opening of an emergency tourist center in Punta Cana.
During the luncheon, the guest speaker Frank Comito, general director of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) called on tourism stakeholders to establish a comprehensive collaborative plan to sustain the industry in these challenging times. Comito observed that the Airbnb digital platform had added around 15,235 additional rooms to the lodging capacity of the Dominican Republic. He remarked that while this is a plus for many household incomes, it means the government will receive around US$20 million less in tax revenues.
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Listin Diario
29 October 2019