On Tuesday, 27 November 2018, President Danilo Medina received a courtesy visit from Gloria Guevara, president of the World Council for Travel and Tourism. The meeting took place at the Presidential Place. Also attending were Frank Rainieri, president of Grupo Puntacana and Simón Suárez, past president of the Association of Hotels and Tourism (Asonahores) and of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association. Rainieri highlighted the importance of the visit. He told the press, the future of tourism in the country and the president’s vision for the sector was discussed.
The Dominican Republic is the leading tourism destination in Central America and the Caribbean, and 17.2% of the nation’s GDP is tourism-related.
The meeting took place at a time when Asoleste, the association that represents the hotel industry in the east coast, and the National Hotel and Tourism Association (Asonahores) are disputing the merits of a unilateral decision from the Medina administration issued by the Ministry of Tourism on 12 October 2017 to change the land use of the Punta Cana area. From a maximum of 11 meters height, the government without consultations, authorized high rises of up to 22 floors in Cap Cana and Macao. Asonahores has called the resolution with the new heights “a clandestine resolution.” Asonahores and Asoleste have taken the case to the Higher Administrative Court on grounds that it violates Law 107-13 that obliges the government to allow access to the project by those interested during a minimum period of 25 days and that the resolution be published in a newspaper of national circulation.
Asonahores and Asoleste say the resolution violates land use law approved in 2012 for Punta Cana-Bavaro-Macao with a minimum time span of 10 years, as established in the National Development Strategy Law 2030. A technical study to support the change of the land use has not been presented by the government. The government did not publish the resolution in a national newspaper, nor informed the regional hoteliers of the decision until these inquired after a rumor was circulating on the resolution for over two months.
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Presidency
28 November 2018
