Life beyond the beach

Last year’s 2.5 million foreign visitors prove the Dominican Republic is doing something right when it comes to tourism. Recent growth has been robust despite occasional shocks, such as Hurricane Georges in 1998 or the immediate collapse in the value of the euro, which made the Dominican Republic a more expensive destination for continental European visitors.

In 1994, when the country was already attracting 1.3 million foreign visitors a year, there were 29,000 hotel rooms. Now there are 52,000 rooms, making the Dominican Republic by far the Caribbean’s largest destination. Not surprisingly, the country has built its tourist industry – worth a net $2.5 billion last year – around the traditional tropical attractions of sun-kissed, white-sand beach resorts, with the heavy presence of well-known hotel groups such as Barceló and Meliá of Spain. However there is now awareness that something different is needed to keep the Dominican Republic at the top of visitors’ lists.

“We know we have to introduce more variety,” says Ramón Prieto, president of the National Hotels and Restaurants Association (Asonahores). “The extras we can offer are going to be very important. That’s why we are trying to create alternatives such as ecotourism and adventure tourism: to provide a richer experience for tourists that will help us to compete with other destinations.”

There is a feeling that the Dominican Republic is already suffering from a plethora of very similar three- and four-star resorts, but lacks accommodation for visitors in other market niches. Prieto says the country needs both more exclusive 5-star hotels and more cheap options, such as hostels or bed-and-breakfast accommodation.

Prieto even believes the time has come to put a stop to the further growth of the kind of resorts that have been the country’s bread and butter since the first was built with World Bank backing in the early 1970s. “We are at the point where we shouldn’t build any more hotels, because there is an oversupply of rooms. Perhaps the government doesn’t believe that, but we do. We have enough rooms for the next few years,” he says. “Any growth has to be in new products that complement what we already have.”

Hugo Guiliani, secretary of industry and commerce, says it is “wrong thinking” to consider limiting tourist growth. “Demand is much greater than the number of rooms we have,” he says. “I totally disagree that there is enough capacity.”

However he does acknowledge the need to revamp the Dominican Republic’s tourism model, by doing more to cater for independent tourists, who are often more discerning but who are also likely to spend more.

“We have been associated with lower prices. The hotels charge very low rates,” says Guiliani. Prieto agrees that the industry would like to improve quality to help it raise prices. “We want to work to make the business more profitable,” says Prieto.

These considerations come at a time when the Dominican Republic is already concerned by the fallout for its tourist industry – generator of almost 170,000 direct and indirect jobs – from September’s terrorist attacks in the US. Visitor numbers from the US had grown 20% this year to more than 530,000 by August. But there is now inevitable fear of a downturn.

Adding to the worries is this year’s declining number of visitors from Europe, the biggest market. Arrivals from Europe were 800,000 by August, down 11% year-on-year.

Overall, income from tourism in the first half of the year grew 1% compared with 2000 – anaemic for a country that had enjoyed average annual tourism growth of 12.5% since 1996.

The government is concerned enough to have pledged an extra $50 million this year for tourism promotion since the September 11 terrorist attacks, hoping to increase its lobbying in European markets to capture tourists who might now be reconsidering trips to middle Eastern destinations.

Visitor surveys reveal generally high levels of satisfaction with hotel facilities, but point to the country’s need to do more to care for the local environment. Visitors are unimpressed with poor, badly signposted roads and litter-strewn surroundings, says Prieto.

Guiliani says infrastructure needs to be improved to attract those high-spending independent tourists, so tourism is one of the sectors set to reap most benefit from the Republic’s recent debut sovereign bond issue. Income from the bond is to be put into infrastructure projects, such as roads, geared mainly to the tourist sector.

Better road connections with many coastal resorts could also bring more visitors to the capital’s 500-year-old colonial sights. Andrés Dauhajre, a leading figure in the government’s economic team, says: “Santo Domingo is one of the colonial cities that benefits least from tourism in Latin America, because our tourism strategy has been based on beach resorts where visitors don’t come to the town because it is a whole day’s journey. Once they can have a two-hour journey, spend six hours here, and have a two-hour journey back, it will be more attractive and can maybe even help to extend the average length of stay in the country.”

Prieto says the sector has good relations with President Mejía. A new tourism stimulus law has been passed in congress and is expected to get presidential assent. The law is aimed at generating development in areas that have not yet benefited from tourist development, while sparking construction of different attractions such as theme parks.

Aerodom, the private consortium that won management rights over four airports in a government privatisation in 1999, is also set to build a new airport at Samaná. This region on the north coast is one of the latest hopes for tourism, with 1,800 hotel beds presently, rich natural resources and excellent prospects for ecotourism, says Prieto.