By any chance there is a plan to privatize the port eventually, perhaps to "PORTDOM". ???

one million passengers a year is a very long shot bet.....tourism is dreaming out loud....there is practically no chance that the number will be half of that or even a quarter of that ....who are they kidding or renting space to

This will be a great boost to the economy, especially to East Santo Domingo.

wow, that looks nice from the picture....Im still waiting to find when carnival is going to start the Jacmel stop on their cruiselines in Haiti. I hope the Haitians are taking notes.

Dominican Republic with Santo Domingo, La Romana, Samana, and soon Puerto Plata will be one of the most visited country by cruise ships. And we will become not just the most visited country by airplanes but also by cruise ships.
Arriba!!! Dominican Republic

It is obvious senor DOM you are not familiar with cruise industry...2 cruise ships a week does not make a big deal Puerto Rico ,St thomas and St marten have 8 ships a day and they have excellent shopping we dont and never will have duty free shopping.....beaches are beaches....colonial buildings abound on English speaking islands ,and Puerto Rico ....we have one thing that is super unique ...WHALES.....otherwise we are just a negotiating chip for Carnival and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

sorry to throw water on your enthusiasm but cruise lines are very shrewd operators and we must be realistic

Goulet, this is when i actually like you: you clearly have great knowledge of certain subjects and you elucidate your points with certainty. have you ever considered sticking to your strengths and teaching us something, rather than trying to be the eternal frat boy? just a suggestion.

why thank you dredy ...you are to kind

i told you a long time ago that i respect pòsters who are authoritative in their areas of knowledge, and that you know your hotel and tourism thing. instead of taking that as your cue to educate those of us who want to learn new things, you decided to be Don Rickles revisited. a mind is a terrible thing to waste

dredy it is off subject but how do you explain the defection of the cuban soccer team....and why does no one go the other way....except for the few deludedhttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15....s/soccer/15soccer.html?ref=sports

maybe the same reason not too many people sneak into other countries from the usa. economic opportunity. if we had the same privileges applied to us that cuba receives, only Leonel and his friends would still be here!

you can really offer this as a comparison....the armed guards that follow these guys from country to country...who represent cuba ...please you cannot make this comparison with a strait face

i have no idea what you mean. defection is an old fact of life. people have managed to expedite this practice from time immemorial, obstacles be damned. that is why it is romanticised. if it was simple, it would not be newsworthy!

seriously Goulet, i have some concerns and maybe you are the guy who can throw some light on things. (unless i give you credit where it is not due!). i would like to know a few things
1) what is the average amount spent by visitors to the DR. my understanding is that the Bahamas, for example, is visited by high end tourists who spend big bank, whereas the visitors to the DR are, by and large, rather parsimonious.
2)what is the retention rate of receipts.with so many packages sold abroad and so many all inclusives tied to foreign concerns, is it correct to say we only keep 11 cents on the dollar?
i await a civil response( just kidding)

dred at one time these figures were at my finger tips .....senility and time out of the business does not allow me to spit them out....however the distinction between air arrivals and cruise arrivals was large...mostly because time spent was considerably longer by air arrivals.....and figures would vary from shopping oriented destination versus activity destination...these figures are available I am sure via google.....also I personally strongly believe in the value of a varied touristic package....cruise ...all inclusive ...bare boat charter....eco tourism....deluxe golf ....villa rental.......to diminish this package as not of value in terms of how much gets to the people is a specious argument......for this is a huge economic engine and we are the envy of our neighbors here in the Caribbean ....the future is bright in the tourism dept....and dred the public will form so many small businesses to support this industry that it will be the main force behind the NEW MIDDLE CLASS

the 11 cent figure is very unrealistic and I do not know how it is meant ....it sounds demeaning......the Caribbean islands have little to offer except sun and sand ...our diversity of gifts make us practically unique...because like Puerto Rico we can augment our package with other things like agriculture and manufacturing.....Cubas future is very bright once its nightmare ends

the 11 cent figure is not meant to be demeaning: it is a reality occasioned by the tourist model. in countries wherein the majority of the tourist assets are locally owned, the retention rate will be higher, since repatriation of receipts is lower. in a model such as the DR, wherein Spain alone holds 66% of hotel rooms, obviously more funds will return to the point of ownership

well it is unrealistic to find local ownership of hotels anywhere nowadays ,but I think the diversity of hotel chains now coming to the D.R. indicates that we are moving away from the all inclusive ...which allowed the country to build an infrastructure of hotel workers over the last 20 years....believe me this cannot be underestimated......we are producing excellent middle management at this time and soon you will see executives who trained and educated here......Spain there model of tourism for here has served its purpose .......but we have moved beyond that

the 11 cent figure is not meant to be demeaning: it is a reality occasioned by the tourist model. in countries wherein the majority of the tourist assets are locally owned, the retention rate will be higher, since repatriation of receipts is lower. in a model such as the DR, wherein Spain alone holds 66% of hotel rooms, obviously more funds will return to the point of ownership

0000

Dr kepts only the amount that will cover labor, provisions and utilities !!!

Its the biggets rip-off ever, when you consider the min labour cost of RD$4,000, the central bank receives US$130.00 per employee a month in exchange of RD4,000 !!!!

Hotel imported provisions, maintenance and supplies materials are duty free, LOL


Good luck with this economical model, your renting your work force and selling your land for pennies, think about it !!

perceptive one ....you are using old tired numbers from old all inclusive hotel industry ...their veracity is suspect at best even when they may have been current.....it is an old saw.....no money gets to me ....wheres mine ....can the government help me .....boo hoo

Goulet, there you go again. instead of demeaning what perception says, why dont you provide contradictory DATA! if he is wrong, prove it. dont just try to ridicule what he says, since that does nothing to advance the discourse. i saw these figures very recently, only thing is that i cannot remember where. if you have updated figures, provide them. that is why i appealed to you in the first place! tourism is the number one hard currency earner that this country has: it is iniquitous that it is controlled by foreigners, who derive the lion's share of the bounty. some people will find this to be xenophobic melodrama, but show me one country in modern times which finds that condition to be acceptable. surely the saudis do not allow germany to control their oil fields! the DR is crawling with foreign hotel management, since the ownership brings its staff with it, instead of hiring locals. this is reality. i have spent enough time in the DR to assess where the plum jobs go.

nobody is looking for handouts, only fairness. the sad thing is that some boneheaded Dominicans believe that every foreigner that buys property here is INVESTING in the country. it's not investment, it's consumption.when some guy from montreal buys a piece of land at bargain basement prices, employs a flotilla of haitians to do the donkey work, brings his carpenters and other skilled tradesmen from manitoba, then sells 300,000 usd condos to a dude from key largo, i don't see how that is investment in the DR. you are more perceptive than you let on, Goulet! unless you don't spend enough time assessing the current condition in the country, you should see what is happening. the country is almost unrecognisable in certain areas.heck, in places such as thailand, foreigners are not even allowed to own land. apartments yes, land no. but we let everyone with a sack of cash buy every available piece of property, creating a parallel economy in the process. this is not going to end well,

i can assure you. the common man will soon begin to wonder where his country went when he has to get permission to the numerous foreign gated communities, euphemistically and hilariously characterised as TOURISM PROJECTS. all i am saying is that Dominicans cannot lay claim to the largesse of other lands, but sure as hell should enjoy the fruits of theirs

dred that rageddy stuff about 11 cents etc is as dumb as building cars in the D.R. Cap Cana alone makes the figure of 66 spanish owned dumb..... last time i checked Kazourys,Vicinis, De La Renta,were dominicans you can go thru the alphabet of prominent Dominicans that have large holdings in tourism....Donald Trump is not a Spaniard that I know of ...this is an anti tourism paper whos numbers are phony published in what........ I dont need to dignify that propaganda ...".they are ripping us off "say the whiners who are chronic complainers or political hacks AS I said before the small businesses formed to support the tourism industry will form the new middle class

Goulet, this is a subject about which you and i will never arrive at a consensus. all i am saying ,in a different way, is that i dont think canadians will be too happy if a bunch of oil magnates from the emirates begin to buy up every available hotel in the country and stock them with guys from dubai!

gated communities are for the meritocracy....so what......Cubans cannot under any circumstances enter tourism facilities ...dred again you are trying to deal the slimy race card off the bottom of the deck.....

not so dred the americans and the english have historically owned more of Canada than the Canadians

Canada responded to the cultural invasion by instituting a Canadian content law but this is television ,films and recordings and literature

the most prominent Canadian hotel company ....Four Seasons Hotels ....soon coming to the D.R. the largest share holder is a Saudi

I don't know if you guys noticed, but there's a forum now on the site! http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/forum

gated communities are for the meritocracy? would you kindly indulge me and explain that sentence? and how does standing up for dominicans equal racism? you mean there are no white dominicans? i really hoped that i could coax some intelligent commentary out of you, but it seems futile. if you disagree with anything anyone says, then they are either communist or racist. i guess only colonialists and exploiters should have a voice on this forum. what a world!

I took it you meant these gated communities should not exist....if someone accumulates enough wealth to live in gated community good for them....they should have their privacy

foreign gated community .....Casa de Campo has many many Dominican owners

thailand dred you are joking.....lets talk Panama...Mexico ....Costa Rica....thailand has nothing to do with the soon to retire baby boomers unles they are like danny the diddler looking for sex tourism

this real estate boom is a good thing for the economy....you dont think so?

no i dont, neither do many well thinking Dominicans. selling off one's country lock stock and barrel to foreigners is not a good idea. there is a great disparity between the wealth of europeans and americans,and locals. this means that the realtors can drive up the price of real estate beyond the reach of the native population, while the foreigners consider it a bargain. piece by piece, bit by bit, the prime real estate on the beachfronts is all being sold off. the entire north coaqst looks like foreign territory, filled not with tourists but residents.if you find this acceptable, simply because some moguls are getting rich, then this conversation is pointless. why do you think many countries do not permit this?

not Mexico not Panama not Costa Rica..and many many others

the colonial zone is an example of a restoration begun and continued by foreigners ...where are the Dominicans .....do they care about their patrimony....all these foreigners buying up the colonial zone...be careful when they die dont let them take it with them

i will agree with you that the colonial zone should have been restored by the dominican government. the fact that they allowed it to become degraded is a national disgrace, but then again,we know how short sighted and visionless government can be. it is the country's patrimony and showplace, but maybe the money could not be strategically expropriated, so it was left unattended. i hardly think that too many other governments let their historic treasures go to the dogs, waiting for foreign money to restore them!

dred,,,,Most countries are falling all over themselves for this kind of development...your vision of the pyramids being built with imported overseers is far from the truth....from Dominican Architects,electricians and plumbers and tradesman all these people win....dred you must not have friends building homes of the luxury type in Samana or La Romana or any where else....this segment is booming and is always indicative of the health of ones economy...Why must you always look for the bad news....do not I repeat do not invest your money in this car manufacturing scheme....stick to your purchasing of scratch and win tickets as your primary retirement plan

i really wish you would explain to me how it is that some mogul from sanibel harbor building a million dollar mansion in casa de campo indicates the strength of an economy. it simply tells me that a guy with a lot of money bought a piece of land an put up a structure: it has nothing to do with the strength of an economy. there is a group of investors which is putting up high end housing in haiti, and their target market is the returning haitians who want to come home and retire with the money they made in the states. do you consider this to be an indicator of how strong the haitian economy is?

dred...high end Haitian housing....that is a small market....housing starts high end low end indicate the health of an economy.....I also find the Latin American Oligarchs generally speaking parasites ...a meritocracy like the USA or Canada rewards hard work the imigrants that worked hard and built the houses ...those immigrants now own the companies that build the houses...and so on...Giving the workers new houses is some kind of Hugo Chavez drivel and does not work and you know it

you see, Goulet, i am very careful to sling around the term "hard work' and associate it with wealth. imbeciles like Howard Stern repetitively state the notion that people who are rich deserve to be so because they "work hard" . well, if that was the case, why are the haitians here so poor? you mean you dont consider what they do hard work? if you do not, maybe you should try it sometime. capitalism is notorious for misallocation of rewards. a rookie fireman in new york city receives less than 50, 000 per year, yet his life is on the line every day. so are cops. teachers are entrusted the responsibility of educating the succeeding generations, yet they receive pittances.yet useless drones like talk show hosts make millions. dont tell me about meritocracy: there is no merit in being born 7 feet tall and ending up in the NBA making gazillions per year playing a child's game. it is sheer luck of genetics!

or luck of birth ......He was born on third base and he thought he hit a triple....lucky sperm club

listen to Imus not Stern....Imus has much more intelligent show dredy

yes, Goulet, and that extends to those who inherit wealth. do you think that all the rich kids in Malibu rolling around in porsches and ferraris got them from ' working hard"? they would not know what work is if it bit them in the ass. yet they are the first ones to decry indigent people receiving meagre allowances from public assistance. be careful when you use the term "meritocracy" in conjunction with opulence! you are wiser than you let on: you know better. do you think that george bush got into yale because he had a stellar grade point average on his SATs?

injustices of everyday life vary depending where you are in the food chain...the poor and ignorant often with a smile bear a burden I could not ........proving what little value there is to material things in the over all scheme.....

Goulet, are you trying to give me a heart attack, what with this kind of talk?

http://www.wabcradio.com/article.asp?id=531472.....imus link 6am until 10 am eastern time the best political interviews from the right or left check it out dred

At least they wll give a break to las americas airport on Exporting drugs !!

Dred and Goulet, you sound like a married couple, or at least on a bad date. Just kidding. I enjoy the diatribe.

I taught" Dred the Red" everything he knows it took 30 seconds that was twice as much time as I really needed.....he was so bright ....his mother called him sunny....and he does not need to be restrained like he used to...before the new medicine

Drug smugling port,

Why to erase what its true ?

perception are you drug obsessed ....you say NO to drugs....when they ask ...have you had enough...You say ...NO

I can see the picture, ship crew asking to be aboard does which stop at DR

I like ambitious investors :)

staveras, forgive Goulet. he is just practicing his one liners for his try-out on comedy central. the man cannot be serious about anything. i blame myself for encouraging him: i feel like i have fed a neighborhood stray, and now he will not go home!!

perceptive one dont worry about the drugs ...we have purchased 8 fighter planes to shoot the cruise ships out of the water...all is well ....the military is on guard

LOL. I really like the last comment. That is real funny. The government is out of its mind buying them fighter plans. You have to wonder what that is all about given there is no threat. Its either to run drugs easier or Haitian paranoia. There a big time scam behind this, and where the hell is the protest from students and others that should care?

Staveras, it would be instructive to note whether or not there has been a history of mass student protest in this country against government abuses. we all know about spontaneous neighborhood huelgas, when disenchanted civilians burn trash and tires in the road, hurl a few rocks and intimidate innocent passersby. these are usually not in response to issues pertaining to the general social arena, but to local issues such as power outages and water stoppages in their barrios. can someone with knowledge of this topic kindly weigh in with some info?

yes please weigh in ...because when the pot starts to boil that is when these phony bleeding hearts want to be involved as instigators ....they say they are for the downtrodden...but in reality they are agitators.....they would be happy to see the country in flames ..so they can implement their style of wealth re distribution....A LA MUGABE.....mumbo jumbo about economics and justice conceal a hidden agenda.....so inclosing the sooner we can get these students stirred up the sooner these types will show their hand..... to stir up more trouble

Goulet, i have been chastised in another thread for involving myself in this exchange with you. i conceded to the poster that he is right. it is my fault. what in God's name am i doing debating( if you can call it that) with you? you cannot even formulate a readable piece of prose. your mind has no focus, and produces an array of unfinished sentences ,punctuated by copious periods. when you achieve adulthood, i will return to debating you!!

as a historical aside , student protests have been with us from time immemorial. nowhere have they been more copious and spirited than in the usa. heck, students have died at the hands of the authorities, as in the case of kent state university, in ohio, during vietnam. but the purpose was never for any communist redistribution of wealth, as the historical genius Goulet asserts. he believes that if people agitate for fairness, they are communists. they should shut up and bear their lot like sheep. seen and not heard. the only voices worthy of attention should be the moguls and magnates: they are the only ones that count, since they have the most money!!

sticks and stones

students have had their shining moments Caracas recently much to your chagrin .....Budapest 1956....Prague 1968....and many others....but there are any more bad examples where the students have been duped