SANTO DOMINGO. - The hotels and restaurants grouped in Asonahores decry the wretched condition of the country’s highways, which they affirm considerably harms the tourism industry.

Its president Haidée Kuret on Thursday said the capital Santo Domingo loses thousands of tourists every year, because the highway to the Bavaro-Punta Cana area, which accounts for more than 50 percent of the visitors, isn’t fit to drive.

She said the tourists in Bavaro and Punta Cana who visit Santo Domingo must leave no later than 7 a.m. from, spend four hours in a bus, two in city tours, more than one hour to eat and later another four more on the return trip. "That tour is not for everyone."

Kuret said as long as the country doesn’t have an adequate road system the tourists will stay away, noting that people don’t visit countries to spend their time on a highway.

Interviewed by Pablo McKinney on CDN 2, the tourism leader stressed Public Works minister Victor Diaz’s interest in working on the highways which link the tourism regions.

"We often have areas where the highways should’ve been already done and today the work is at a crawl, but it’s an investment with a return. And that’s the point, they are investments which will return money to the country, it will flow from one zone to another and will improve our competitiveness," the Asonahores president said.

Regarding transportation, Kuret called Dominican Republic’s competitiveness level "extremely low" in Central American and the Caribbean, which it includes roadways, because it is only now when they are being improved.