Santo Domingo.- Sans Souci Ports president Lisandro Macarrulla on Sunday said to achieve the tourism sector’s objectives as president Danilo Medina proposed during his campaign, cruise tourism must be maximized.

He said Santo Domingo must be adequately exploited as a destination, because it hosts the country’s biggest cultural events. "It takes a serious marketing and efficient plan exclusive to the city of Santo Domingo, which allows increasing the number of travelers who visit us."

The business leader said as a tourism destination Santo Domingo needs an international campaign to exclusively promote it as America's First City, and called the Ozama River’s cleanup also urgent. "Joint efforts and actions are urgent such as the problem of the Ozama and Isabela rivers, which belong to everybody and nobody at the same time."

Macarrulla said current trends place cruise tourism among the world’s fastest growing ways of leisure travel, as much as 6% annually, in a subsector he affirms directly generates an average of US$11.0 million per 100,000 cruise passengers.