2009 Travel News Archive – Page 21

Now in its seventh year, Master of the Ocean 2009 is set and ready to “rip”. Organizers of the international wind, kite and surf competition announced that this year’s Master of the Ocean would be held from 24 February to 1 March in Cabarete, the DR’s water-sports capital. Eighty competitors from around the world will …

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The contest to choose Miss Spain will be held in the DR, Miss Spain 2008, according to Andres Cid, director of the pageant. The Ministry of Tourism and Grupo Globalia (Grand Oasis hotels & Air Europa) are sponsoring the event that will take place at the National Theater in May. 52 beauty candidates representing the …

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French tennis star Tatiana Golovin visited the Dominican Republic in December to take part in the shoot for the next Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, which will be on the newsstands on 10 February. Golovin is on leave from the tennis circuit as she tries to recover and make a comeback. She has told the press …

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The Dominican Republic is perceived as a big island with great choices for scuba diving enthusiasts. The official publication of the PADI Diving Society includes the DR in their January/February 2009 “100 Destinations of a Lifetime 2009” list. Covering the DR writer Ted Alan Stedman described how he was able to visit 23 dive sites …

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Lucy Huxley, editor of the UK’s Travel Trade Gazette (TTG) is behind a Fair Fares campaign to stop the UK government from imposing new Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates that would increase the cost of travel to the Caribbean. The ADP system structure would mean that customers flying to the Caribbean would pay a higher …

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The DR was named the best Caribbean destination by Travel Weekly’s sixth annual Readers Choice Awards 2008. The award was presented to Deputy Tourism Minister Fausto Fernandez at a formal ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in December. Fernandez was accompanied by Deputy Minister Magaly Toribio and the director of the DR’s Tourism …

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Through November, the Dominican Republic has posted less than a 1% growth rate for the year. According to the World Tourism Organization Barometer report, growth in the DR Jan-Nov was 0.7%, which falls below the 1% growth for the Caribbean sub-region as a whole, despite posting a 4.5% growth rate for the first half of …

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The Puntacana Group has made the list of finalists for the 2009 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). The finalists are selected by an international team of independent judges in each of four award categories for having successfully demonstrated sustainable tourism best practices, including the protection of natural and …

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President Leonel Fernandez was present for last week’s inaugural of the new terminal at the Punta Cana International Airport. The airport now has capacity to handle 2.7 million passengers. At the inaugural, Frank Rainieri, president of the Puntacana Group, owner of the airport, stressed that the present global financial crisis is also “a time for …

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Authenticity is the name of the game in the Caribbean, as island states begin to push their individual identities. During the celebration of Caribbean Marketplace, last week in St. Lucia, island government authorities announced a new branding. Building upon the tourism tagline of “Simply Beautiful,” the Prime Minister, Ministry of Tourism and St. Lucia Hotel …

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