With over one billion dollars invested, 18,000 rooms and producing 25% of the Gross Domestic Product, Bavaro and Punta Cana are gems in the Dominican tourist industry. However, according to interviews published in El Caribe, the other side of the coin shows terribly poor local infrastructure consisting of dirt roads, unlighted pathways, and large potholes in the existing roadways. According to Ernesto Veloz, president of the Hotel Association of the East, this is a major drawback for further tourist development and is one of the reasons many times even hotel staff recommend tourists stay within the confines of their hotel. Only recently, an accident involving two small mini-vans was attributed to the poor state of the roadway. Six people died. Veloz warned of the many slums developing around the hotels and that informal waste dumps are growing next to the roadways, sometimes hidden by the tall weeds. The area also houses a growing number of undocumented aliens, mostly Haitians, who also want to be part of the economic boom.
Veloz stated that given the official apathy, most services in the area have always been privatized, including electricity, water and water treatment facilities. Veloz says the only governmental activity in the region is to collect taxes. Since Bavaro and Punta Cana are just rural sections of the province of La Altagracia, there are no local municipal councils to speak to, and the large floating population of construction workers and hotel employees makes the creation of a municipality very difficult.
The former president of the hotel owners association (ASONAHORES), Rafael Blanco told El Caribe reporters that the private sector would build the necessary infrastructure sourcing funds through the World Bank if the government would allow this to be deducted from taxes.
Speaking at the IV Meeting of the Women Business Association, Blanco told his audience that the government should either “do the washing or give us the washboard.”