The Ministry of Tourism does not have enough money to promote the country abroad or to combat the allegations that it is rife with diseases. Pedro Dajer, Deputy Minister of Tourism for International Affairs, aid that the Ministry must wait until the next budget year, when it will
have DR$700 million (around US$42 million) to disseminate its message. The current budget, the last one proposed by the government of Leonel Fernandez, is only DR$270 million, of which some 35% was dispersed prior to the new government?s advent in August. Dajer denounced the
?campaign of defamation? being conducted against the DR in Great Britain and Germany by ?other Caribbean destinations.? A Tourism Ministry technician, Manuel Cuevas, revealed yesterday that he has been following European Internet sites that have reported epidemics of typhoid,
dengue, hepatitis, and other communicable diseases in the DR. ?The Ministry of Public Health and the Pan-American Health Organization have repeatedly affirmed that these diseases do not exist here,? said Dajer. ?They are false alarms.?
