Generous tax incentives, superb air connections, and available beach land is the formula that has resulted in the boom in hotel accommodations and second homes in the Punta Cana area in the east of the Dominican Republic. Nevertheless, during the DATE travel B2B event, several key participants warned success has come too fast. Some say, Punta Cana is now drowning in its own success.
Legendary Frank Rainieri, the man who turned a little beach cabana business into the largest destination in all the Caribbean, now complains of urban chaos and sprawl in Punta Cana. The tax incentives are the motivation that has led the drive for more and more hotel rooms and residential developments. Punta Cana is on its way to having 70,000 hotel rooms.
Roads for reasonable commutes or implementing land plan guidelines determining what should go where, seemingly have not been anyone’s priority and those in the area are now feeling the pinch in the traffic jams.
Government tax incentives reduce municipal taxes to the minimum. The tax bonanza for hotels yet curtails the capacity of city governments to offer the needed services.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
Listin Diario
28 April 2026