{"id":127805,"date":"2019-06-24T12:41:19","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T12:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.do\/?p=127805"},"modified":"2019-06-25T00:26:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T00:26:24","slug":"tourism-minister-we-have-nothing-to-hide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2019\/06\/24\/tourism-minister-we-have-nothing-to-hide\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Minister: “We have nothing to hide”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garc\u00eda, in a press conference called on Friday, 21 June 2019, says that the safety of tourists is the top priority of the Ministry of Tourism. He said this is beyond efforts for tourists to have a good time during their stay in the country. Garc\u00eda addressed local and international journalists at a time when media abroad is tracking tourist deaths in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garc\u00eda understands that the Dominican Republic has been a victim of a fake news campaign in the US media. Garc\u00eda says that counting of the deaths and the debate on the deaths of tourists in a country had never occurred in the history of tourism around the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the press conference, Garc\u00eda sought to dispute the two theories he said have been the essence of the US media coverage. He cited that the US Department of State has already argued that there had not been an exaggerated number of deaths of US tourists. Garc\u00eda said there have been no mysterious deaths since autopsies have been carried out and the reasons for these deaths shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garc\u00eda called for the public to await the results of a toxicology study before reaching conclusions. He said in the rare case of three US citizens that died in two weeks at a single complex, the Dominican government requested the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigations to carry out toxicology tests of these persons, including the couple that died together in the last week of May 2019. He asked patience until the results are known to close these rare cases. The US Embassy has said the tests take about a month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says the US Embassy has been in close communication with Dominican authorities (Ministry of Public Health, Attorney General, Police and Ministry of Tourism) regarding the deaths and US ambassador Robin Bernstein has called these unfortunate yet isolated incidents and the US Embassy has also called for the public to await the results of the toxicology tests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garc\u00eda said that the US State Department rates the Dominican Republic as a level 2 destination, the same awarded to popular destinations Spain, France, Denmark and Belgium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spoke of preventive actions that continuously improve security for tourists, in the destinations, ports of arrival, regarding food and beverage standards, emergency protocols and assistance to tourists. He said that the 911 Emergency Safety Program is in place in all tourist destinations. Tourists suffering health problems can call this hotline and a medical unit will be sent to take them to a nearby hospital emergency room free of charge. This service is also available to all who reside in the Dominican Republic in the 911 area of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, the 911 system monitors over 3,000 surveillance cameras and 4,000 police agents are assigned to tourist areas. He said the country has a safety and security plan that is assessed every year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want the truth to prevail,” said Garc\u00eda. “We do not want any privileges, we want fair treatment. We know in all the discussions, the truth will come out.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garc\u00eda said that hard work is behind the country being the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean, with the highest investment, a model for the World Tourism Organization. He said the local standards of security and hygiene are the highest in the Caribbean and Central America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 5 years, the Dominican Republic has received more than 30 million visitors, including 3.2 million US tourists that arrived in 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tourism Minister later was available for one-on-one interviews with international media in his office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:
\nhttps:\/\/listindiario.com\/la-republica\/2019\/06\/21\/570889\/en-vivo-rueda-de-prensa-ministerio-de-turismo-sobre-turistas-fallecidos
\nhttps:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/06\/20\/734303163\/tourists-distressed-by-unexplained-deaths-in-the-dominican-republic
\nhttps:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/international-travel\/while-abroad\/death-abroad1\/death-statistics.html
\nhttps:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/traveladvisories\/traveladvisories\/dominican-republic-travel-advisory.html
\nhttps:\/\/do.usembassy.gov\/u-s-embassy-statement-on-the-safety-and-security-of-u-s-citizens-in-the-dominican-republic\/
\nhttps:\/\/dr1.com\/forums\/showthread.php\/175409-48-American-Deaths-in-the-DR-in-2-years
\nhttps:\/\/data.world\/blog\/do-state-department-travel-warnings-reflect-real-danger\/
\nhttps:\/\/listindiario.com\/la-republica\/2019\/06\/23\/571117\/estos-son-los-paises-donde-mas-turistas-mueren-rd-registra-la-menor-tasa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 June 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garc\u00eda, in a press conference called on Friday, 21 June 2019, says that the safety of tourists is the top priority of the Ministry of Tourism. He said this is beyond efforts for tourists to have a good time during their stay in the country. Garc\u00eda addressed local and international journalists … <\/p>\n

Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[154,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127805"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127805"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127854,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127805\/revisions\/127854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}