One of the spans completed.
Santo Domingo.- The Coral Highway that’ll connect the Punta Cana tourism region with Santo Domingo will allow 600,000 tourists that stay in that area’s hotels to visit the Colonial Zone annually, leaving “an economic deluge of up to 17 million dollars daily,” affirmed the business leader Frank Rainieri, who called it “is the best investment the Dominican Government has ever made.”
He said Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone must play an important role in the country’s tourism development, but cautioned that it still isn’t ready to welcome that many visitors.
Speaking in the program Leaders Forming Leaders organized by the Santo Domingo Tourism Cluster, Rainieri affirmed that once the first stage opens by May next year, around 2,500 people on more than 60 buses would visit the Colonial Zone daily, for which medical facilities, parking areas and restaurants are needed where tourists eat, as well as enough trained guides.
The Puntacana Group president added that Santo Domingo will start to see the Coral Highway’s fruits in the 2012-2013 high season.
From: United States
I think Rank has been into the Brugal lately. Where in the name of god do these made up numbers come from?
From: United States
SD will benefit greatly from the highway. Rainieri might be exaggerating but the PC visitors currently do not see a need or a way to get outside the compound and spend money. Now tourists will have no excuse.
From: Dominican Republic, vieja Santo Domingo
There are very few visitors to Punta Cana that want to leave the beach at Punta Cana to the run down Zona Colonial .The Coral Highway is nowhere near finished and will not be ready for the 2012 2013 season .
I love Zona Colonial for its Dominican feel but I imagine that for the entire year , the shop keepers would be overwhelmed to see 17 thousand dollars daily and not 17 million
Written by: xwill7, 13 Jul 2011 2:31 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
Must mean $17 mil in pesos. Why would anyone spend that much when you have already spent for an all included room? Even if you go to CZ, how much will an average tourist really spend? CZ still needs some work.
Written by: Juango, 13 Jul 2011 3:04 PM
From: United States, far S. Florida (formerly Santo Domingo)
Why would the PC/Bavaro beach, brew & grub tourist crowd spend 6+ hours (RT) on a bus to visit SD/CZ, after having prepaid their AI. That is a full day out of their entire week !
Frank R, you are a sharp businessman, but please get out of the sun and lay off the Blue Label.
Written by: jperez, 13 Jul 2011 3:16 PM
From: United States
I believe Frank is exagerating a little with the amount of money that will be spent per day, but with the coral highway the time to get to SD from PC will only be about 45min to an hour not 6+ hours as my misinformed friend Juango is quoting. This will definetely bring business to SD.
From: United States
Initially they will spruce up the zona colonial and bring in the tourists. This will make them want to explore more of the country. Makes total sense.
From: Dominican Republic, vieja Santo Domingo
jperez ..even with the dual road most of the way from la Romana to zona colonial , it is between 90 and 120 minutes at present in a big bus .I do it in a bus almost every week ...and that is with the bus exceeding speed limits ...it is about equal distance from la Romana to Punta Cana so even when the detours around la Romana and Higuey are completed and they have barely started , it will be 3 to 4 hours .I can not imagine that the buses will not stop somewhere for a rest stop along the way also .
But again I have to say that I love Zona Colonial but to attract tourists , hundreds of millions must be spent and we do not have that money .At present there are about 6 beautiful old churches to look at , but they are lacking in eternal decoration , there are three museums and some galleries ,Conde needs a make over with shade trees in the middle as it is roasting hot there at present ..so really not a lot at present .
From: Dominican Republic
45min to an hour....Dominican watch???? LOL
Written by: Grullone, 13 Jul 2011 7:21 PM
From: United States
If you count the tolls they're going to pay he might be right.
From: United States
Question #1 Why would Raineri want tourist in Punta Cana (which he is a partner) leaving there and spending $17M in SD? For one thing - his numbers are totally unrealistic -totally! From where does he derive the assumptions to believe that $17 M "daily" will be generated? I would think Frankie Boy would like to have that money generated in his beloved Punta Cana rather than in zona colonial. Frank et al developed PUnta Cana to get away from Santo Domingo - why is he now so eager to bring the two regions together? And now he wants tourist that he has attracted to Punta Cana go spend $17 M per day in the zona colonial? This make no sense. But praise by the Lord that the road was built. If I ever drive through Higuey again, it will be tooooo soon!
Written by: xwill7, 13 Jul 2011 10:14 PM
From: United States, El cuarto bate
Santiago esta mejor!
Written by: tomito, 13 Jul 2011 11:57 PM
From: United States
Rainieri is a wise businessman and is just exagerating to make the project look better, sure more tourists will probably visit the capital now but I'm sure that he knows that way more "capitalenos" will now visit the Punta Cana area on the weekends and even travel in/out of the Punta Cana airport (which he partially owns) to/from destinations not currently served by SDQ (Las Americas Airport) since once the highway is completed, the trip which now takes about 4 hours in a private vehicle (I've done it myself) will take about 2 and a half hours.
I don't know where he got the numbers from or if he was misquoted but I think it would probably go like this:
The 60 buses/day sounds reasonable, maybe 1 or 2 out of each resort in the area, carrying about 40-50 tourists per bus but just to be safe, let's say it's 50 buses with 40 passengers each. This is an all day long trip which means they will have to spend an average of about 50 dollars in food and drinks,
Continue...
Written by: tomito, 14 Jul 2011 12:07 AM
From: United States
Cont...
another 100 bucks in souvenirs, museums, , taxis, etc... (otherwise why even bother to take the trip if you are not going to spend anything. Therefore:
50 tourists X 40 = 2,000 tourists per day. 2000 x 150.00 dollars = 300,000 dollars/day.
300,000/day x 30 days = 9 million dollars per month.
9 million dollars x 12 = 108 million dollars per year benefit to the capital (not counting PC residents who will probably travel more often to the capital) and way more than that spent by capitalenos in the PC area, whom by the way will be more encouraged to purchase a property there (I can already see the smirk on Rainieri's face), even Bayahibe will more than likely benefit from this.
By the way, don't worry about the highway not being completed by 2013, it will be done before Leo leaves in August 2012, as well as the Metro's 2nd line, he will not miss those photo ops by nothing in the world.
Written by: DomLon, 14 Jul 2011 4:44 AM
From: United Kingdom
Don't get carried away Santo Domingo may be the first but in terms of sites it is relatively insignificant. San Juan, Quito, Havanna etc all have much more in terms of buildings, musuems sites etc. .. The road will improve access but only a fraction of visitors to Punta Cana really want to visit a large city and that is unlikely to change.
I remember that similar sort of claims were made whn the built the lighthouse - it would result in vast numbers of tourists, new hotels, etc etc - and look what happened.
Written by: Escott, 14 Jul 2011 11:22 AM
From: Dominican Republic, Cabrera and Sosua a 2 days a month for payday
Franky boy isn't stupid. It will increase business in Punta Cana as the residents of S.D. will go for weekends. There won't be ANY tourists going to Colonial Zone with few exceptions. He spouts blah blah to get more business heading his way not the other nieve people.
Written by: Chasbo, 14 Jul 2011 12:55 PM
From: United States
He led the way to have the highway built to bring more touristas to Punta Cana. He's trying to make it sound like it will benefit benefit to Santo Domingo-Zona Colonial.
This guy doesn't have an altruistic bone in his body. Promoted his own investments using public funds and his position as head of the Tourism Authority.
From: United States
a very astute insight by Escott. sometimes he can make sense.
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I love Zona Colonial for its Dominican feel but I imagine that for the entire year , the shop keepers would be overwhelmed to see 17 thousand dollars daily and not 17 million
Frank R, you are a sharp businessman, but please get out of the sun and lay off the Blue Label.
But again I have to say that I love Zona Colonial but to attract tourists , hundreds of millions must be spent and we do not have that money .At present there are about 6 beautiful old churches to look at , but they are lacking in eternal decoration , there are three museums and some galleries ,Conde needs a make over with shade trees in the middle as it is roasting hot there at present ..so really not a lot at present .
I don't know where he got the numbers from or if he was misquoted but I think it would probably go like this:
The 60 buses/day sounds reasonable, maybe 1 or 2 out of each resort in the area, carrying about 40-50 tourists per bus but just to be safe, let's say it's 50 buses with 40 passengers each. This is an all day long trip which means they will have to spend an average of about 50 dollars in food and drinks,
Continue...
another 100 bucks in souvenirs, museums, , taxis, etc... (otherwise why even bother to take the trip if you are not going to spend anything. Therefore:
50 tourists X 40 = 2,000 tourists per day. 2000 x 150.00 dollars = 300,000 dollars/day.
300,000/day x 30 days = 9 million dollars per month.
9 million dollars x 12 = 108 million dollars per year benefit to the capital (not counting PC residents who will probably travel more often to the capital) and way more than that spent by capitalenos in the PC area, whom by the way will be more encouraged to purchase a property there (I can already see the smirk on Rainieri's face), even Bayahibe will more than likely benefit from this.
By the way, don't worry about the highway not being completed by 2013, it will be done before Leo leaves in August 2012, as well as the Metro's 2nd line, he will not miss those photo ops by nothing in the world.
I remember that similar sort of claims were made whn the built the lighthouse - it would result in vast numbers of tourists, new hotels, etc etc - and look what happened.
This guy doesn't have an altruistic bone in his body. Promoted his own investments using public funds and his position as head of the Tourism Authority.