Aviation and airport professionals met in Santo Domingo this week to focus on new developments and networking efforts. The event was sponsored by Aerodom, the concessionaire of the Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and Samana airports in the DR at the Hotel Embajador from 13-15 February. This was the first time the event had been held in the Caribbean.
For the opening, David Stroud, senior vice president of event organizer Routes, spoke of the role airline route development has in the aviation industry and tourism. Routes Americas is recognized as a networking arena for players in the industry. During the event, the good state of health of the Latin American aviation industry was highlighted, with the particularity of regional cooperation as one of the strengths. Major growth opportunities in the Panamanian, Chilean and Colombian markets were singled out.
Speaking during the strategic aviation forum, Marla Laughlin of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitor Authority stressed the importance of research in their planning decision and constant innovating and evolving. She mentioned as a mistake what she called the “child-friendly era” and says Las Vegas has since moved away from that market to focus on their core business of adult-based tourism. The bureau is behind several 90,000-person conventions a year in Las Vegas.
James Fong, assistant director for airline planning at Changi Airport in Singapore, said it was essential to stay limber, listen to partners and customers and work closely with partners. Changi moves 48 million people a year, and is known as a shopping mall with runways.
Jamaican Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett also focused on the need to constantly reinvent oneself, and mentioned new focus of Jamaica as a major Caribbean convention center with a new center with 5,000-person capacity and leveraging the power of sports tourism and wellness. “We are now going after people’s passion, what drives them to travel and go to places,” he said. “Baby boomers want to be zoomers, we think we can never die, so we went heavily into spa, health and wellness,” he added.
Bartlett commented that Jamaica is now the most connected destination in the English-speaking Caribbean, with one million seats available following government support for airlines in the shape of seat support and marketing. He also mentioned the completion of what he described as “the largest port in the Caribbean” to cater to the cruise tourism business. He mentioned that there were great opportunities in being a homeport.