The most popular excursion booked by tourists arriving to Punta Cana hotels is the Saona beach and cultural day, that takes tourists two hours west to visit Altos de Chavon in Casa de Campo and then to the Saona island beach adventure. On Saona there are no resorts, and tourists come by boat for a beach barbecue and swim in paradise-like island setting.
Now with the expected opening of the Coral Super Highway this August, the Dominican Republic’s most important cultural attraction, the Colonial City of Santo Domingo will be less than two hours and a half away from Punta Cana hotels, making it an attractive option for those seeking a day trip away from the resort.
Everyone is now talking about whether Santo Domingo will attract some of the over 300,000 tourists that every year have been taking the Saona excursion. At present, the drive to see the Colonial City takes a stressful four hours from Punta Cana. So only a trickle of guests staying at the Punta Cana resorts book the excursion.
There is speculation whether Santo Domingo is ready to receive the expected more than 2,000 tourists a day that could start to trickle in once tour operators begin to offer the easy-done day trip.
An Inter-American Development Bank US$30 million loan is expected to help prepare the city to receive the flux of tourists, but many question how the logistics will be handled if the tourists start gushing in. The IDB project includes improvements to monuments, lighting, streets, and underground cabling, plus programs to educate the population and help small businessmen offer new products and services to the tourists.
Beyond the Colonial City, the challenge is for the city businesses to help tourists spend their money. A city with intense cultural life, the most museums, restaurants and nightspots of any city in Central America and the Caribbean, Santo Domingo is also a major shopping destination. But it has always been quite nonchalant about the tourist trade.
Now the Ministry of Tourism, the Santo Domingo Tourism Cluster, the Association of Hotels of Santo Domingo, and the National Hotel & Tourism Association seek to address the challenges of how the city will be able to successfully manage large numbers of tourists.
Fausto Fernandez, Deputy Minister of Tourism, says there is a drive within the industry to convert Santo Domingo into an important destination, to complement beach tourism. Some of the priorities are simple things, such as improvements to city signage, different language explanations in museums and monuments, and improved cleanliness.