Travel – Page 457

In addition to the year round Punta Cana to Montreal and Toronto connections, and the Toronto-Puerto Plata direct flight, Air Canada announces several winter season connections to Punta Cana from Ottawa, Winnipeg, London, Halifax and Moncton. Punta Cana-Ottawa. Saturday departure. 20 Dec 03- 24 April 04. Punta Cana-Winnipeg. Sunday departure. 21 Dec 03- 28 Mar …

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Liat has requested permission to fly the Antigua/Santo Domingo/Antigua route. The flight would offer passenger, cargo and mail service. In addition to Liat, BWIA (Trinidad-Santo Domingo) and Air Caraibe (St. Martin-Santo Domingo) also connect the DR to the English and French-speaking Caribbean.

Competing for the Dominican Republic, 19-year old Susanne Mai placed first place in the kiteboarding world championship, Red Bull King of the Air, held mid-October in Maui, Hawaii. Teammate Luciano Gonzalez placed third. The team competed against the best 55 men and 18 women kiteboarders of the world. Mai won the Women’s Freestyle division, defeating …

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The World Tourism Organization forecasts international travel will increase from 703 million travelers at present to 1.6 billion by 2020. The figure comes from the Tourism 2020 Vision report published by the WTO that provides a long-term forecast and assessment of the development of tourism up to the first 20 years of the new millennium. …

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Another interesting factoid in the study is that Russia is now ranked tenth among the world’s top spenders on international tourism, passing Canada in 2002. The top spenders now are the US, Germany, UK, Japan, France, Italy, China, Netherlands, Hong Kong (China) and the Russian Federation. The fact is published in the World Tourism Organization …

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With over one billion dollars invested, 18,000 rooms and producing 25% of the Gross Domestic Product, Bavaro and Punta Cana are gems in the Dominican tourist industry. However, according to interviews published in El Caribe, the other side of the coin shows terribly poor local infrastructure consisting of dirt roads, unlighted pathways, and large potholes …

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The Dominican Republic and Trinidad will soon have a direct air connection. British West Indies Airways announced flights starting 18 November. The airline will fly twice a week to Santo Domingo from Port of Spain. BWIA will be using a A319 jet with capacity for 154 passengers, as reported in Hoy newspaper. The flight could …

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Air Santo Domingo has opened offices at the Satellite Airlines Terminal of 42 and 125 of Park Avenue. Air Santo Domingo today flies daily from JF Kennedy Airport to Las Americas International (AILA) in Santo Domingo. It also operates a daily flight from AILA to Luís Muñoz Marín Airport in San Juan, and two daily …

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El Caribe newspaper points out that hotel occupancy has continued to maintain itself way above last year’s levels, even in the slow month of September. Average occupancy at the larger hotels this year from January-September has been 74.1%, up from 63.9% last year. Punta Cana/Bavaro continues to lead the way with an 85% occupancy rate, …

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Hans Dannenberg, Puerto Plata Hotel Association director, visited Japan to promote tourism in the Japanese Travel Agent (JATA) meeting. He mentioned that Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) consultants say that Puerto Plata is the Dominican destination that is the most attractive for Japanese travelers. The key issue is to put together attractive packages, getting around …

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