SANTIAGO.- Cibao airport will be the front door on the Government’s new tourism promotion plan to attract some of the around 50,000 private planes that’ll visit the Caribbean region every year.

Those airplanes will have as destinations the country’s numerous tourist resorts, said James Parker, main United States private aviation tourism promoter for this area, when he was received in the terminal by a Santiago commission. It’s his first visit to all international and domestic airports to weigh how to attract planes.

The specialist’s visit to Santiago is part of the plan by the International Civil Aviation Institute (Idac), the Tourism Ministry and the Airports Department to present the first Dominican tourism pavilion on July 27, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  A Dominican Republic high-level commission will attend the activity.

Parker said Santiago’s Cibao International Airport was chosen the national front door for its support of the decree which exempts private airplanes from paying landing, parking or lighting fees.

The initiative, which makes Cibao Airport the first terminal to provide new areas for private flights, aims to promote tourism to the region, especially Santiago, that has new hotels and Centro Leon, an international level cultural site.

“The objective is to show the kindness that Ciudad Corazon gives and opens the doors to general aviation in this terminal,” said Rafael Eduardo Molina, of Civil Aeronautics.

The tourist destinations the planes plan to visit starting October are El Catey and El Portillo (Samana), Punta Cana, La Romana, and Puerto Plata.