The city of Santo Domingo is experiencing a boom with the opening of international brand hotels. Monika Infante, president of the Santo Domingo Tourism Cluster, estimates more than 1,500 hotel rooms are being added this year to the capital city accommodations inventory. Most of the rooms are opening in Piantini, the city business center that is an area full of restaurants and stores.
The new hotels are the Aloft Marriott, Courtyard Marriott Piantini and the Hyatt Centric Santo Domingo in the Piantini area of the capital city. The Hyatt Centric is the first Hyatt to open in Santo Domingo. The chain already operates resorts in Punta Cana.
In the Colonial City of Santo Domingo, the soon-to-open Kimpton Las Mercedes joins dozens of new hotels offering boutique hotel experiences in the historical part of the capital city.
Both Piantini and the Colonial City are dotted with hundreds of restaurants, bars and shops.
Furthermore, thousands of hotel rooms in the short-term rental offering are opening, using platforms such as AirBnB. Several new condominiums have been built or are under construction in prime areas of the city to cater to those who want to stay longer.
Infante also says the hotels are readying for when a large convention and events complex on the Malecón begins bringing thousands to the city.
Infante is also general director of Aerodom, the Vinci concessionaire in charge of Las Americas International and La Isabela International airports in Santo Domingo. In the interview with Hoy during her participation in the DR Tourism Tradeshow. In Miami, Florida, she spoke of the synergies between the public and private sectors and the Las Americas International Airport. She mentioned so far this year traffic is growing by 12.5%, up from an average annual growth of 2-3%.
Much of the boom in traffic is attributed to the success of the Arajet airline that uses Las Americas as its hub for flights to destinations in Canada, South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Infante spoke of the efforts underway at Las Americas to begin construction of a second terminal. US$250 million will be invested in the terminal.
At the present installations, Infante said US$16 million is invested in the installation of a new baggage handling system, expanded parking, renovations to the arrival area for check-in and the runways in time to receive heavy Christmas travel.
The planned expansions will enable Las Americas International to double its present capacity that is at 5.5 million passengers to 11 or 12 million, Infante told Hoy.
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Hoy
Hyatt Centric
Aloft Santo Domingo Piantini
Courtyard Santo Domingo Piantini
Kimpton Mercedes
9 April 2024