Dread your big shot ....Bring POP out of the darkness

Fix that stretch of road near Ocean World, it is disgusting! And all the garbage that fall off the garbage trucks doesn't help either. That landfill should be relocated far far away.

We had a truck driving in front of us spilling it's garbage everywhere, and it's like the driver didn't even see it.

i am definitely going to attend, just to hear what is being said

Dreads
Comrade are you sure you are not going for the free refreshments?

POP needs to rid itself of the motos, a total group of idiotas. I am there several times a week and have been for the last 10 years. It is a totally insane place and there is essentially no reason to be there. Tourism has no place in POP. The cruise ship program has only Maimon for lunch and not much more. It is a sad testimony to a wonderful legacy of history but the people who abuse the city and the port and its environs do nothing but destroy any potential. Other than Casa Colonial and at times, its sister property, Playa Dorado needs to be closed. The beach is dirty and there is nothing but debris there. Cabarete has some life and Sosua is the best for the sex capital of the DR, if one needs and wants it, but, POP, is a waste.

Written by: vacanos, 1 Sep 2012 4:37 PM
From: United States, An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Dreads
Comrade are you sure you are not going for the free refreshments?

actually, i plan having lobster dinner, and putting it on your credit card.

drcabarete, take this one to the bank. the seafood guys of Maimon are not going to see a penny. firstly, the cruise passengers already have their evening meal paid for on the ship. the lunchtime meal , for them, is something light. secondly, Carnival is going to have their own restaurants, you can bet. a survey showed that cruise passengers spend, on the average , 6 dollars on food, and drink, while on shore. you can bet that Carnival will have that revenue stream covered.

The AI model does very little for the local economy other than allow some locals to make money to try and support their families. Very little of the tourist money from any cruise or AI package ever sees the local economy. The tourists have already felt they bought and paid for everything and besides possibly getting a few trinkets to bring back home very little is spent.

The local businesses need to spend some money and time to advertise and show these tourists that for the same amount of money or possibly a little more they can have an a la cart vacation with higher quality rooms, food, and drinks. The local businesses need to show and cater to the tourists and not try to inflate prices to rip them off thinking another tourist is a round the corner if I lose this one.

That model which did work for years is no longer valid since most tourists not in the AI plan are returning visitors.Once you lose the returning visitor customer base you will eventually notice your lack of custome

Veronica, you said a mouthful. for those who doubt her, get yourself access to the following article

Enclave Tourism; For Whom the Benefits Roll., by TG Freitag. the focus of the study is the town of Luperon, i think..

There are many sides to the tourism problems of Puerto Plata. The least being its people as one deputy recently very cautiously tip-toed around the real problem. As a tourist who fell in love with Puerto Plata and has traveled for the last 20 years there, I can attest to the downward spiral of the value and quality of the hotel packages. P Plata's ricachones and hotel owners need to stop living in the 1970's. The mentality that they need to bring tourist over without the backing of a good value hotel stay and all of its quality related services is just very naive and ignorant on their part. I question the 6 dollar figure, I think tourists spend more than that on rum, t-shirts, scooter rentals, and souvenirs and please lets not forget the quicky that many will find time for in a local cabaña. Maximo Iglesias is a stuck up -incompetent-old despot who is nothing more than an employee of Aero-Dom who knows nothing about tourism, let alone how to revive Puerto Plata.

Deputy Jose Ignacio Paliza comments that the people of Puerto Plata need to change is nothing more than a very political correct way to blame the Hotel owners, local politicians and local business people in general without ruffling some feathers. My experience with the resort policies at the IberoStar and Barcelo has left me very angry and resentful of these businesses. The bed bugs and so called disco at the Viva Wyndham in Cabarete was really a low point. From the actual checkin to the quality of food at the restaurants to the way one goes about actually making reservations to eat at the in-house restaurants that one paid for in the all-inclusive price, leaves one feeling cheated. There will be no bringing up Puerto Plata from the dead until hotels and their so called vacations packages live up to the hype and price value and quality. The law that keeps clubs from operating beyond 12 o clock at night on weekdays is another policy that does nothing for tourism.