2004 Travel News Archive – Page 19

Tourism drives DR economy

Hoy reports that tourism is still one of the most vital pieces of the Dominican economic puzzle. An unusually high growth rate of 29.6% in 2003 indicated an intensification even greater than that during the very first years of tourism. Last year?s growth has been maintained into 2004, with occupancy rates in February averaging 90%. …

Santo Domingo made easy

A private European company named Eudom (Equipamientos Urbanos Dominicanos) has embarked on a signposting program that will help tourists get their bearings and better discover the attractions in Santo Domingo. El Caribe reports that the company will be placing signs to help people find where they are going. The Urban Transit Department of the Santo …

Where tourists are from

Canada ranked as the No. 1 source market for tourists headed to the Dominican Republic in January 2004. During the first month of this year, 77,249 Canadians visited the DR to make up 28% of the total foreign air arrivals. US tourists were next, with 69,775, or 25.3% of the total. France has moved up …

Golf Suites at Melia Caribe Tropical

With the opening of five new golf suites last December 2003, Melia Caribe Tropical is now offering premium deluxe accommodations for golfers and their families visiting Punta Cana. Melia Caribe Tropical now has available 40 spacious and tastefully-decorated golf suites, 30 of which feature one bedroom with a king-size bed, and 10 that have two …

Sea Horse Ranch Road Race and Fun Run

Sea Horse Ranch announces it will be hosting its first 4K Road Race and 800-meter Fun Run for kids on Saturday, 10 April at 8 am as a kick-off to the Easter (Semana Santa) weekend. The “Camine, trote o corra como loco”, (“walk, jog or run like mad”) race starts at the Sea Horse Ranch …

Continental to fly to Punta Cana

Continental is joining the rush to service the popular Punta Cana-New York route. Pete Garcia, Continental’s vice president for sales and marketing for Latin America, announced the start of the nonstop, daily service between its New York hub at Newark Liberty International Airport for 10 June 2004. Tickets will go on sale once governmental approval …

Dominican version of “Evita”

Merengue star Miriam Cruz was chosen for the role of “Evita” in the musical that is scheduled for 25-27 June presentations at the National Theater in Santo Domingo. Cruz will star alongside Carlos Alfredo Fatule (Ernesto “Che” Guevara) and Jose Lora (Checho) as Juan Domingo Peron in the Amaury Sanchez production. The musical tells the …

Record occupancy in February

February was a month of record hotel occupancy in the Dominican Republic. Occupancy averaged 90.8%, according to the National Hotel & Restaurant Association (Asonahores). February is a peak month for sun-seeking tourism. This year occupancy increased 4.8 percentage points over that of February 2003. Asonahores says it was an excellent year for all beach destinations, …

Introducing coral reef restoration

The president of Counterpart International, a community-driven international development organization, visited last week to meet with Dominican business leaders as well as international aid officials interested in developing sustainable development programs. Lelei LeLaulu and his organization are introducing the Coral Gardens program, the successful community-driven reef restoration program that has the plus of increasing local …

JetBlue seeks to fly to DR

JetBlue has requested authority from the US Department of Transportation to fly non-stop to the Las Americas and Cibao international airports in the Dominican Republic, serving the vicinities of Santo Domingo and Santiago, respectively. Pending the approval from the US authorities and later the DR government, the airline is proposing to operate a twice-daily service …

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