Travel – Page 494

The director of the Customs Office, Vicente Sanchez Baret, has ordered the transfer of more than 90 employees and the firing of supervisors and inspectors at the Las Americas International Airport after receiving claims from passengers of extortion and reports of contraband at the country’s main airport. The decision comes after the press revealed that …

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El Caribe reports that the Customs Office (DGA) plans to install closed circuit video cameras in luggage inspection areas of all airports in the country to keep an eye on customs officers who may try to extort “tolls” from travelers. It was recently revealed in the media that some people were being charged up to …

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Nearly all the major airlines have cut return airfare prices from the Dominican Republic. American Airlines, for example, has reduced its return ticket prices by RD$3000 on average. Now you can fly from Las Americas Airport to Miami for RD$6055 (a saving of RD$3500) and to New York for RD$7300 (normally RD$10,900). Continental Airlines has …

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President Hipólito Mejía has shuffled his cabinet, moving ten government officials including three Secretaries of State. He named PRD director Siquió Ng de la Rosa as the new Administrative Secretary to the Presidency, replacing Pedro Franco Badía. Franco Badía has been named Minister of the Interior and Police, replacing Doctor Rafael Suberví Bonilla who will …

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Representatives of the public and private tourism sector still have not begun a planned European promotion of the DR because the government has not come through with a promised US$25 million grant. The Tourism Department decided to increase its promotion of the DR in Europe to compensate for the drop in North American tourism due …

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