Mega tourism project in the Dominican Republic will start with the construction of two hotels

Pedernales is a province that is located on the Dominican-Haitian border, registers 57% poverty, and 38,000 inhabitants. One of the most attractive beaches in the area is Cabo Rojo.

According to official data, the planned tourism development there contemplates 12,000 hotel rooms in 10 years, with an estimated investment of US$2.245 billion.

In the first of the four established phases, there will be built 4,700 hotel rooms, the international airport in the Manuel Goya area of Oviedo municipality, shopping centers and plumbing works.

Also, they will restore the exclusive hotel of the former managers of the Alcoa Exploration  mining company, the Senior Staff, designed by the master of Dominican architecture Gay Vega. The structure is anchored on the cliffs, facing the Caribbean Sea.

Recently, the ministries of the Presidency and the Environment agreed with the Coalition for the Defense of Protected Areas that the tourist development of Pedernales will not affect the natural reserves of that area of the country.

CONSTRUCTION PHASE

On January 11, the Chamber of Representatives approved in a single reading addendum No. 3 to the Pedernales Province Tourism Development Trust Agreement (Pro-Pedernales).

The President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, announced that construction of the first two hotels of the tourism development project in Pedernales will begin in February of this year.

“On February 4, we break ground for the construction of two hotels in Pedernales,” said the president, leading the presentation of the results obtained by the Tourism sector in 2022.

“From the General Directorate of Public-Private Alliances and together with the Ministry of Tourism, we have been working on initiatives to accelerate the development of the South,” said Abinader, who highlighted the growth that this sector had in 2022.

The Dominican government assures that the tourism development works in Pedernales do not include Bahía de las Águilas.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

Elizabeth Mena, president of the Dominican Association of Exporters (Adoexpo), affirmed that the Pro-Pedernales Trust, which the government develops through a public-private alliance, will positively impact Pedernales, allowing it to achieve a greater development of ecological tourism, have a deployment of infrastructure works and the creation of other productive activities that develop exports, particularly agricultural ones and the increase in mining and industry.

In addition, large-scale tourism investment, under the sustainability criteria that Pedernales will have, will contribute to boosting the economy of the area.

For the president of Adoexpo, this trust would allow Pedernales to consolidate and be able to diversify and modernize its agricultural production of fruit trees (avocado and mango), livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, poultry) and fishing (tilapia production, aquaculture), providing goods required for the country’s tourism sector.

Mena considered that, since agricultural activities represent almost half of the production of Pedernales, including the cultivation of musaceae such as plantains and bananas, the trust would be the channel to provide Pedernales with the necessary infrastructure to increase the export of products. agricultural products, generating more foreign exchange and economic growth.

“This trust is also key to taking advantage of all the mining potential that the South of the country has and, in the specific case of Pedernales, in this province it can be developed in the mining of limestone, marble, bauxite and other materials,” she said.

TOURISM RECORD IN 2022

David Collado, Minister of Tourism, reported that in 2022, 7,165,387 tourists and 1,311,129 cruise passengers visited the Dominican Republic, record numbers.

“We grew by 10% compared to 2019 in terms of tourist arrivals by air and we grew by 2% in terms of visitor arrivals by cruise ship compared to that year, for which we reached an unprecedented total of 8,470,000 visitors that the Dominican Republic had in 2022”, revealed Collado.

He said that in December the airport with the largest arrivals of tourists was Punta Cana, with more than 425,000, followed by Las Américas with some 206,000 tourists.

The number one country issuing tourists to the Dominican Republic was the United States, followed by Canada, Colombia, Argentina and Germany.

Regarding hotel occupancy, it was indicated that it reached 76% nationwide in December 2022, exceeding the 69% occupancy in 2019 prior to the pandemic.

The destinations with the highest occupancy were Punta Cana-Bávaro and Romana-Bayahíbe with 79% and 78%, respectively.

With information from Bloomberg