SANTO DOMINGO.- The country’s hoteliers grouped in Asonahores today accused the local representatives of the United Nations Program for Development (UNPD) of being "ecoterrorists" and of forming a group of "bureaucrats" which has never formulated a development project for the country, in the wake of the release of a document which describes the country’s tourism model “highly unsustainable."

The document, published last weekend after an Inter-ministerial Dialogue on Climatic Change, criticizes the sector’s lack of diversity, its hunger for profit and a culture of exploitation and mismanagement of Dominican Republic’s natural resources, and unleashed a wave of criticism as well as support of the UNPD.

On Friday Asonahores executive vice president Arturo Villanueva said the UNPD has always ha criticized the country’s tourism development, despite having served as the model for México and Cuba.

“That criticism doesn’t worry us. The UNPD is a un group of ecoterrorists which represent the current of father Hartley in the Dominican Republic,” he said referring to the controversial Catholic priest Christopher Hartley, who’s allegedly behind an international campaign against the country’s sugar industry.

Today the document also prompted the Dominican Government to call its realease a "mistake," since the text doesn’t includes neither the National Council for Climatic Change nor the Environment Ministry’s position on the tourism industry.

However National Council on Climatic Change vice president Omar Ramirez today said the PNUD "in no way participated in the deliberations nor in the discussions" and its role was solely as "facilitator" and "sponsor" of the process.

Tourism minister Francisco Javier Garcia also labeled the information from the forum as “malicious and perverse" and affirmed it seeks to "jeopardize" the investment climate of the Caribbean nation’s main source of income.

Although the document released to the media is titled "Conclusions of the Inter-ministerial Dialogue on Climactic Change," Ramirez affirms it’s a "draft."

 “The error was that document did not have to happen to the press and was an error  the organizers:  the Environment Ministry and the National Council (for Climatic Change). We assume ours responsibility," Ramirez said in a press conference.

He said the document’s content wasn’t submitted to the plenary of the inter-ministerial dialogue and, therefore, shouldn’t been released.

The dialogue was held in Santo Domingo from September 2 to 4 with the participation of 175 representatives of regional governments and parliaments, Civil Defense, banking, non-government organizations, industries associations, among others.

As to Asonahores’ absence from the dialogue, Ramirez admitted "a failure in invitations," but affirmed that the Environment ministry and the Council will meet with their representatives and those of the Tourism Ministry next week.

Tourism is the Dominican economy’s most important industry, which accounts for as much as nine percent of tax revenues, and is the top currency generator, followed by remittances and the free zone companies.

Haydee Kuret weighs in

Asonahores president Haydée Kuret de Rainieri also joined the fray, calling the PNUD statement on the tourism model “very unfortunate” and of little benefit for the country’s most dynamic sector.

Interviewed by the Web site caribepreferente.com, the business leader said the UNPD “crossed the lines of respect by accusing in an offensive manner the businesspersons of a hunger for profit and irresponsibility in development.”