SANTO DOMINGO.- The Dominican tourism industry’s six top sectors agreed to adopt nine points aimed at preventing a fall in the number  tourists who visit the country, including eliminating the tax on jet fuel and to grant the so-called “fifth freedom” to commercial airlines which operate here.

Tourism minister Felix Jiménez yesterday said president Leonel Fernandez will be given a document with the points at issue inn the next few days.

The official and the private sector discussed the nine-point plan, which includes the National Hotels and Restaurants Association (Asonahores), the airport management companies, investors, the travel agents association and the tour-operators, and raised the following points:

- Grant the regular airlines the “Fifth Freedom,” so that any European carrier which  wants to come to the country, and from here continue towards Central America, Mexico, United States, South America and the Caribbean can do so;

- The government acknowledges the need to lift the “ad valorem” or tax on jet fuel (avtur); ask the airport owners and management companies to lower by 20 percent their fee per passenger who uses the airports.

- Bolster Air Dominicana, which began its flights Wednesday, so it begins its regular operations as soon as possible and that, consequently, could start flights to the U.S. and Puerto Rico as a regular airline and not just charter this year.

-Stimulate the European carriers to use some Dominican airport as a permanent hangar for some of its planes which arrive from Europe and leave towards South America or the United States, from the Dominican Republic.

- Get the concessionaires of the Punta Cana, La Romana and Santiago airports  to associate, as Aerodom did, to Tourism in the country’s ad campaigns and in new lines, and increase flights to their airports.

- Increase the ad campaign on the country’s attractions, to bolster the international campaign.

Jimenez said U.S. airlines are going through crisis because they have very old planes, which consume too much fuel, with high administrative and financial costs, “and that’s the reason they compete at a disadvantage compared with other airlines.”

However the official said they are important for the country because they move 34 percent of the tourists who come from the United States.

He said the airlines from South America are also increasing their flight frequency and that he’s not aware of any flight reductions from Canada.