2020News

El Nacional: Hotels and airports to open 1 July

A news story in El Nacional says that the Ministry of Economy confirmed on 3 June 2020 that the country’s coronavirus economic recovery program establishes that the tourism sector reopens 1 July.

Economy Minister Juan Ariel Jiménez is a member of the Coronavirus Emergency and Health Response Committee. As reported, one of the minister’s collaborators had confirmed to the newspaper that there has been no change to the country’s economic reopening calendar and that the hotel sector is included in phase four of the reopening program, as are airports, international flights and restaurants.

Nevertheless, the government has yet to issue official notifications. Frank Rainieri, of the Punta Cana International Airport, said that tourism companies need 30 to 45-day advance official notice to coordinate their opening. Rainieri alerted if the government does not issue the notifications, hotel companies could skip the hurricane season and wait until the winter season to open.

There has been no official response from the government to Rainieri’s request for early confirmation of the phase four opening.

Diario Libre reports that Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo has said the government plans to authorize the reopening of the tourism sector on 1 July, as established in the economic reopening schedule. The media reports that Alejandro Herrera, director of the Dominican Civil Aviation Institute (IDAC) has said the plan is to authorize flights as of that date, but this will depend on their not being a new outbreak in coronavirus cases. Herrera said a meeting was scheduled for Thursday, 4 June to review the new protocol for airport operations.

Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
N Digital
Diario Libre
DR1 News

4 June 2020