Santo Domingo.- As tourist arrivals appear to continue the downward trend, prospects for Caribbean arrivals in 2009 remain negative, especially given the start of the hurricane season in August, although Dominican Republic appears to have weathered the storm, Reuters reports.
In its “Focus On The Dominican Republic,” the news services affirms that the Dominican Republic is suffering less that many other Caribbean countries from the tourist slowdown. “In the first four months of 2009 arrivals fell by 4.8% year-on-year (y-o-y), making it the fifth best performing country in the region.”
Reuters says the country is weathering the downturn better than some of its neighbors for several reasons. “For one, it possesses a highly developed tourist infrastructure, with substantial developments along the beachfront and a good balance between charter holiday and high-end resorts. Its long coastline gives it an abundance of locations, while the capital, Santo Domingo, provides a good base for travelers wishing to explore more of the country.”
It adds that unlike some other Caribbean destinations, “Dominican Republic benefits from a varied landscape, with tourists able to explore the beaches and the mountainous interior. These factors should help it to mitigate the effects of the 2009 downturn and position it for a recovery into 2010.”
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
there will always be snowbirds ......we are just haggling over the price
Written by: juanb, 3 Nov 2009 10:22 AM
From: Dominican Republic
Tourism may have weathered the storm, but will the country?
Written by: xwill7, 3 Nov 2009 11:45 AM
From: United States, Chicago
lower ticket prices and all planes to DR will be full
From: United States, Rock Hills, North Carolina
Xwill7,
Forgive my compatriots. They have not gotten hip to the fact that a beach is a beach...is a beach (and adjust their prices accordingly).
They seem to exist in an alternate reality where the only destination in the Caribbean is the DR...where places like St. Marteen, the U.S & U.K Virgin Islands, Curazao, Aruba, the Bahamas, etc, etc, etc, etc,. etc do not exist.
Written by: xwill7, 3 Nov 2009 12:46 PM
From: United States, Chicago
ticket prices from USA are high when you add the taxes. Also, many places do not have repeat clients because of bad service at some hotels. The more people that come to DR will help the local taxis and other service companies in DR.
Written by: josean, 3 Nov 2009 1:16 PM
From: United States
This down turn is a result of the poor marketing LIE-onel Fernandez done with our major tourist attraction “The Chicharrón Express of Villa Mella!"
Once tourist find out about this outstanding 14km adventure the will be coming in droves! So everybody please come down we still have space for 180,000 tourist per day!
From: United States, Rock Hills, North Carolina
What we need here is a good, old-fashioned revolution...
In the Ukraine they had the Orange Revolution; but we need the 'Chicharrones' Revolution: Fry them all!!!!
Written by: josean, 3 Nov 2009 1:42 PM
From: United States
Rosa,
Your my kind of gal!
Written by: xwill7, 3 Nov 2009 1:47 PM
From: United States, Chicago
josean,
you can find alot of girls riding the metro
Written by: josean, 3 Nov 2009 1:59 PM
From: United States
20,000 daily riders is a very limited selection to choose from!
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
Josean most of the young ladies would rather die a horrible death than even be seen with you in public ......... Those islands mentioned by the beauteous Rosa are all profoundly more expensive than the DR and if you add up all the hotel rooms on them together they dont total half the number the DR has
From: United States, San Diego, CA - (Dei sitio)
“For one, it possesses a highly developed tourist infrastructure, with substantial developments along the beachfront and a good balance between charter holiday and high-end resorts."
For all those who only see the negative side of DR; we have been capable to develop a world-class infrastructure for tourism, and a well planned operation strategy...hard to believe for some, but that tells a lot of good things about our people.
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
perlurdom thank you for telling it like it is Dread and Josean want to drive the developers into the sea because the waiters arent driving SUVs yet..... They favor the Mugabe style of development if you get my drift
Written by: xwill7, 3 Nov 2009 4:04 PM
From: United States, Chicago
blu,
the sanky waiters are driving the SUV's lol
Written by: juanb, 3 Nov 2009 4:08 PM
From: Dominican Republic
But when you start to total up the damage done by rude, inefficient emplyees, ripoffs by taxi drivers, and the lack of a sense of security those other places start to look like a bargain. We are starting to suffer from "bad" word of mouth advertising. I flew up to to New York last week and all the foreigners I spoke to before and during the flight had nothing good to say about their visits.
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
you are lucky you were not on the flight from Jamaica juan
From: United States, San Diego, CA - (Dei sitio)
Tourism industry faces high-competition world-wide, as every single piece of land on this planet believes to have potential for tourism, and almost every single country has prepared and submitted a formal plan to develop tourism. DR has developed a very robust infrastructure and we have found a good niche for ourselves in this fragile business. If you look around and list the 10 top visited countries: France, United States, Spain, China, Italy, U.K., Ukraine, Turkey, Germany and Mexico; we might think that there's a lot to learn and copy from their strategies and infrastructure, but every country has their unique characteristics and resources that help them attract tourists in-mass. Besides, if you look closer at the numbers: Number of visitors per capita for abovementioned nations, we are not in so bad shape...In summary, we can benchmark, learn and copy but we have developed a solid infrastructure and we still have room for expansion.
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
you are correct we do have a good infrastructure and the future for Dominican hotel professionals is bright that is why chains like 4 Seasons and Ritz Carlton and Fairmont etc are now coming here we have the people that can do the job properly
Written by: danny00, 3 Nov 2009 6:47 PM
From: United States
rosa THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENT ABOUT OTHER ISLANDS. you are CORRECT.....
AND AS FOR XWILLS COMMENT.... THE PEOPLE THAT WORK IN THE HOTELS DONT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT SERVICE..... i have been to most of the islands many times..... where in the HELL in any of them do u find the dirt, the crazy driving, the VERY LOUD MUSIC, THE BAD ROADS,ECT?.... so a few good beaches so what. as ROSA SAID A BEACH IS ONE BEACH.
and whats so CHEAP IN THE DR?....WHAT?... can u really do any thing their? ok! warm weather so the other islands have that also.
Written by: danny00, 3 Nov 2009 6:51 PM
From: United States
one day i asked some guys to PLEASE make the MUSIC LOWER....
they said to me "DONT U LIKE MUSIC"... my answer was YES i LOVE MUSIC, but if i want MUSIC. i will go to one DISCO.......SH---T some people have JOBS and WORK for A living., and need to sleep at night.
but in truth it all comes down to a question OF RESPECT FOR OTHERS..... and in the dr. this is MISSING for sure.
Written by: danny00, 3 Nov 2009 6:59 PM
From: United States
my family was in the hotel business.... 4 Seasons and Ritz Carlton and Fairmont are coming here.... they are not coming because we have people to work the hotels..... IT HAS SOME THING TO DO WITH NOT LETTING OTHER MAJOR HOTEL CORNOR THE MARKET.
JUST LOOK IN THE STATES AT ONE MCDONALDS, ONE BURGER IS ALWAYS AROUND THE BLOCK..... in most hotels if you have no soap in your bathroom or paper, or the light bulbs dont work the people that work thier say so whats the big deal.....could go on but need to get back to my hotel room and see if the LIGHTS are on and if they brought me towel so i can take a shower..lol
u guys are great.... LOVE THIS SITE... SO MUCH BULLSHIT....
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
danny does the oo mean the number of your IQ ....there is a difference between the Cabana business which your family was in and the hotel business ....in closing please continue to enjoy your visits to Anguilla and St Barths and Mustique and leave the peasants of the DR in peace
Written by: josean, 4 Nov 2009 12:35 AM
From: United States
"For all those who only see the negative side of DR; we have been capable to develop a world-class infrastructure for tourism,"
You can't be saying that with a straight face can you?
Written by: yowzerDR, 4 Nov 2009 1:07 AM
From: Dominican Republic
Within the past few days, the rates with WestJet have dropped about $100 each way from Toronto and are cheaper yet with hotel packages :)
Everything changes slowly...
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
yes Yowzer DR but Canadians are famously cheap and most go to Cuba to escape their brutal winters and avoid ice scraper elbow..... Cuba is welcome to the all you can eat and drink till you puke crowd but the DR is trying to move away from that and remember what do a Kayak and a Canadian have in common ?......answer ....neither will tip .....The only thing worse than a Frenchman is a Frenchman from Canada....A Canadian is an unarmed American with a health plan who does not tip.Canada only has two seasons ....winter and getting ready for winter ....So in closing yowzer we are actually happy that all you ice farmers enjoy coming down and getting warm in the DR eh and Go Leafs eh
Written by: abc200, 4 Nov 2009 9:21 AM
From: United Kingdom
Written by: BASTA, 4 Nov 2009 9:27 AM
From: Dominican Republic, =Ghetto/Legalize Drugs
of good things about our people. What= Crime garbage uneducated a twinkie president cat eaters 65% BI no white people 85% wealth 4% food sucks lights out 12am etc etc
What we need here is a good, old-fashioned revolution...= for sure
From: United States, San Diego, CA - (Dei sitio)
Basta,
What do you mean by old fashion revolution?
What I got from the message is walk our talk or lead by the example right? Coming to a forum to preach and 10 minutes later we litter the streets all the way home, sit down to watch the MLB games with the cable I have boycotted, connected to the internet del tigre de la esquina that has a server and has wired the whole barrio, drink a beer that I chilled robandome la luz or fixing the meter...And when we are bored, let's just pick one on the movies I downloaded and burned to a CD...And the worst, we do all that in front of our kids...Is that what you mean?
Written by: yowzerDR, 4 Nov 2009 7:49 PM
From: Dominican Republic
Blu - Canadians are told not to tip at the resorts by the travel agencies. When out with a British friend he prevented me from giving tips too, but I did anyways because Canadians are sneaky...
Written by: abc200, 12 Nov 2009 8:57 AM
From: United Kingdom
Giving tips is often a degrading process and a service charge as in the UK etc. with laws that this goes to employees is better. Of course this should be on top of the minimum wage.
S.
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
you are an expert at being degraded .....you are the Maetstro of the degraded ,.....you give new and special meaning to the word degraded
From: United States, Faber College Double Secret Probation
Yowzer says ........." lu - Canadians are told not to tip at the resorts by the travel agencies. When out with a British friend he prevented me from giving tips too, but I did anyways because Canadians are sneaky........................those ice farmers do not need to be told not to tip they are genetically programmed to be tighter than the bark on the tree and the Limeys are not far behind are there any other groups I can slander while I am at it ?
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Forgive my compatriots. They have not gotten hip to the fact that a beach is a beach...is a beach (and adjust their prices accordingly).
They seem to exist in an alternate reality where the only destination in the Caribbean is the DR...where places like St. Marteen, the U.S & U.K Virgin Islands, Curazao, Aruba, the Bahamas, etc, etc, etc, etc,. etc do not exist.
Once tourist find out about this outstanding 14km adventure the will be coming in droves! So everybody please come down we still have space for 180,000 tourist per day!
In the Ukraine they had the Orange Revolution; but we need the 'Chicharrones' Revolution: Fry them all!!!!
Your my kind of gal!
you can find alot of girls riding the metro
For all those who only see the negative side of DR; we have been capable to develop a world-class infrastructure for tourism, and a well planned operation strategy...hard to believe for some, but that tells a lot of good things about our people.
the sanky waiters are driving the SUV's lol
AND AS FOR XWILLS COMMENT.... THE PEOPLE THAT WORK IN THE HOTELS DONT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT SERVICE..... i have been to most of the islands many times..... where in the HELL in any of them do u find the dirt, the crazy driving, the VERY LOUD MUSIC, THE BAD ROADS,ECT?.... so a few good beaches so what. as ROSA SAID A BEACH IS ONE BEACH.
and whats so CHEAP IN THE DR?....WHAT?... can u really do any thing their? ok! warm weather so the other islands have that also.
they said to me "DONT U LIKE MUSIC"... my answer was YES i LOVE MUSIC, but if i want MUSIC. i will go to one DISCO.......SH---T some people have JOBS and WORK for A living., and need to sleep at night.
but in truth it all comes down to a question OF RESPECT FOR OTHERS..... and in the dr. this is MISSING for sure.
JUST LOOK IN THE STATES AT ONE MCDONALDS, ONE BURGER IS ALWAYS AROUND THE BLOCK..... in most hotels if you have no soap in your bathroom or paper, or the light bulbs dont work the people that work thier say so whats the big deal.....could go on but need to get back to my hotel room and see if the LIGHTS are on and if they brought me towel so i can take a shower..lol
u guys are great.... LOVE THIS SITE... SO MUCH BULLSHIT....
You can't be saying that with a straight face can you?
Everything changes slowly...
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTo....unta_Cana_Dominican_Republic.html
Canadian tourists are of course welcome and staff locally are trained in French. The major hotels have French and French Canadian chefs. Individual Frechn people have set up beautiful hotels:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_....Peninsula_Dominican_Republic.html
S.
S.
What we need here is a good, old-fashioned revolution...= for sure
What do you mean by old fashion revolution?
What I got from the message is walk our talk or lead by the example right? Coming to a forum to preach and 10 minutes later we litter the streets all the way home, sit down to watch the MLB games with the cable I have boycotted, connected to the internet del tigre de la esquina that has a server and has wired the whole barrio, drink a beer that I chilled robandome la luz or fixing the meter...And when we are bored, let's just pick one on the movies I downloaded and burned to a CD...And the worst, we do all that in front of our kids...Is that what you mean?
S.