President Luis Abinader flew to Miami, Florida on Friday, 27 January 2023 to attend travel industry and competitiveness activities and attend the wedding of singer Marc Anthony.
On Saturday, at 10am he participated in a presentation on the Zero Bureaucracy program of the government at the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus. Peter Prazmowski, executive director of the National Competitiveness Council, coordinated the business promotion event.
At noon, he met with tour operators, travel agents and cruise industry members to promote the Dominican Republic during the Tourism Roadshow held at the city;s JW Marriott. At the event, President Luis Abinader highlighted the importance of travel agents, tour operators and cruise ship chains for a country where tourism is the leading hard currency provider.
In a meeting with tour operators, travel agents, airlines, hotel chains and cruise ship executives in Miami, Florida, the Dominican President thanked them for their confidence in the country and said that the best of tourism in the Dominican Republic is yet to come. He spoke of how tourism impacts the country, bringing cash to farmers and industries that sell products to the hotels.
President Abinader told those attending about new developments that will soon open in Punta Cana, including an amusement park and new vacation property ventures. Abinader promoted Miches, the new East Coast darling for major development.
The statesman also promoted the Punta Bergatín project in Puerto Plata. He said this is relaunching the entire north coast with film studios in partnership with Vin Diesel, innovation centers and a Planet Hollywood hotel, a first in the Dominican Republic.
He spoke of the work ongoing to develop the destination of Pedernales, with an exceptional white sand beach where you can go up to one kilometer and the water is shallow. He said that the development of this enclave will be less dense than the other poles because of the area’s characteristics, which has about 60% as a national park, so it will be a sustainable intervention.
He announced the start of construction of the first two major hotels in the province. He announced that by the end of 2023, Cabo Rojo would begin to receive cruise ship passengers at a new terminal in the area.
“I said, when we were inaugurating the first infrastructure works in Pedernales, that this destination would change in five years, in 10 it would be unrecognizable and in 20, it will be a model of growth for the entire region,” he said.
He said that Samaná is being provided with a new port for cruise ships and Amber Cove and Taino Bay in Puerto Plata are being expanded to receive more tourists.
In the area of cultural tourism, he highlighted the intervention of the Colonial City in Santo Domingo with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank. He also spoke of the improvements made to the historical park area in La Isabela, Puerto Plata where Christopher Columbus built the first settlement in the Americas.
“And today we not only want to thank you, but to tell you that you and the tourists you bring there (to the Dominican Republic) are extremely important and that is why we are going to take care of you and we are going to follow up with you so that you have the best experiences in our country,” he said.
In the evening, President Abinader attended the wedding of popular singer, Marc Anthony to 23-year old beauty queen Nadia Ferreira at the Perez Art Museum.
President Abinader flew back on a private jet in time to attend on Sunday, 29 January 2023. He had flown to Miami on a commercial flight.
Upon his return on Sunday, Abinader landed at San Isidro Air Base and inaugurated several public works in San Isidro and others in the same Santo Domingo East municipality. He later inaugurated the Escuela Básica Kelvin Obrero, in Los Frailes, and the early childhood CAIPI center in Magueyal, in Sabana Perdida, Santo Domingo North.
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Listin Diario
31 January 2023