SANTO DOMINGO.- Dominican Republic’s Tourism Ministry today announced the start of operations by Venezuela Airlines, to link Santo Domingo and Caracas with a daily flight.

The new route will allow "businesspersons, tourists and passengers in general can go to both countries directly, recovering a service lost for more than one year," a source quoted by diariolibre.com said.

Dominican Tourism Promotion Office (OPT) director in Venezuela, Miguelina Ruiz, said the flight "had become a necessity for Venezuelan tourists, who can now fly daily and directly and it’s expected to activate and contribute to increase tourism from Venezuela.”

The official and Venezuela Airlines president Williams Posada said they expect the airline to connect with other Dominican destinations such as Punta Cana and La Romana (east) and Puerto Plata (north) as soon as possible, the Tourism Ministry said in a statement.