2008 Travel News Archive

Casa de Campo was voted the top golf resort in the Caribbean and leading resort and hotel in the DR at the 2008 World Travel Awards held in the Turks & Caicos last week. The Wall Street Journal has dubbed the awards “the Travel Industry Oscars.” 167,000 travel professionals from around the world voted for …

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Santo Domingo’s Sans Souci Tourist Port is ready for its January 2009 inauguration. The first phase, the Don Diego port has been remodeled and a new terminal was built on the eastern side. The port project also includes the dredging of the Ozama River in order to accommodate the large cruise ships that call at …

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The Faldo Legacy Course at Roco Ki opened last week, adding a new championship course to the already great golf offers in Punta Cana. Designer Nick Faldo was so proud of the design that he gave the course his own name. The course design makes the most of the contrasting environments of elevated headlands, tropical …

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The Dominican Republic has been chosen to host the first Competitiveness Institute-sponsored global thematic conference. Maria Victoria Abreu, technical deputy director of the National Competitiveness Council, made the announcement during the closing of the 2008 TCI Annual Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa. More than 500 formally organized tourism clusters currently operate worldwide. The …

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Leading Hotels of the World has granted Tortuga Bay of the Puntacana Resort & Club its Commitment to Quality Award for excellence in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. This is the first time this award has been won by a Dominican resort. To win the award, the boutique hotel achieved the highest score …

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The Campo Alto Verde Nick Faldo signature championship course (18-hole, par-72 golf course) that winds along the beach through a tropical mangrove forest and stretches across the property’s headland with stunning cliff-top views of the sea, is just opening to the general public this month but has already won several awards. The most recent came …

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Dona Mercedes Rosario Sosa leaves her house early every morning, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt and with a machete at her waist, ready to go to the farm and harvest cacao. Cutting the pod to take out the beans is a job she has been doing for the last eight years, ever since she and …

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JetBlue Airways have announced plans to fly non-stop from Santo Domingo to Fort Lauderdale in May 2009, subject to receiving the go-ahead from the government operating authority. JetBlue plans to operate its Santo Domingo service with 150-seat Airbus A320 aircraft. JetBlue inaugurated its Santo Domingo-San Juan, Puerto Rico connection on 3 December, flying an E1980. …

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Indiana University is leading an initiative to turn the Captain Kidd shipwreck site discovered off Catalina Island in the eastern DR and three other underwater preserves into no-take, no-anchor “living museums.” The living museums will protect precious corals and other threatened biology in the surrounding reef systems under the supervision and support of the DR’s …

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Twelve sculptures depicting figures and customs of the Igneri and Taino Indians, the inhabitants of the Punta Cana area when the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 15th century, make up the newest cultural attraction in the Punta Cana area. Thimo Pimentel of the Punta Cana Village Art Gallery masterminded the exhibits. The sculptures are 50 …

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