Remote Punta Rucia, Estero Hondo and Buen Hombre, on the northwestern coast of the DR, seek to jointly become the country’s first GeoTourism destination, emulating the strategy in place in places like Guatemala, Peru, the Sonora Desert of Mexico/Arizona and Romania. The concept was originally developed by the National Geographic Society to build a form of tourism that “sustains or enhances the geographic character of a place – its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.” The focus is to develop a model of tourism that will be socio-economically, culturally and environmentally self-sustainable in the long term. The plan fits into a broader scheme that envisions the creation of the country’s first GeoTouristic Pole, running geographically from Luperon to Montecristi in the northwest and is further intended to serve as a catalyst for a wider application of the GeoTourism concept.
The community has joined efforts, and is being assisted by several national and international organizations, such as the Ministry of Environment Protected Areas Department, Reef Check Dominican Republic, the United States Peace Corps, Counterpart and their Ridge to Reef project, the National Geographic Society and working with the Puerto Plata Tourism Cluster and the Dominican Sustainable Tourism Alliance (DSTA).
The plan for the near future is to offer EcoAction Discovery Excursions with the complete participation of the community and the collaboration of the above organizations so as to include the community in making use of their natural resources, while also achieving a more equitable share in the economic benefits.
The area includes picturesque rural surroundings, long stretches of virgin white sand beaches, vibrant coral reefs and the renowned Cayo Arena islet. In order to achieve self-sustainability while providing a more visitor and destination friendly service, the plan is to organize, train and better equip the community as service providers, taking visitors out to the atoll for observation of its unique coral reef ecosystem.
The communities are working closely with Jose Manuel Mateo, director of the Protected Areas Department at the Ministry of Environment. In addition to fulfilling the key role in the initiative to update institutional policy, taking into consideration the experiences gained over the past eight years of commercial use of Cayo Arena (CA), attention to the communities’ request for permission to share access to CA with the existing tour operators has been prioritized as of high interest.
Further along these lines, in response to concerns about occupancy overload, the organization recommends regulating the number of visitors to Cayo Arena to a provisional maximum of 600 visitors per day, in groups of 200 visitors in three shifts, distributed among four tour operators and a community group, organized as the Punta Rucia and Cayo Arena Maritime Transport Association (ASTRAPUCA), working closely with a Peace Corps volunteer & RCDR. Also, the possibility of developing self-sustainable and non-intrusive excursions to the Estero Hondo manatee sanctuary is also being considered. For more information on the Punta Rucia effort, write to Mickey Gough at mickey.gough@internet.net.do