Ten million tourists per year by 2022? No sweat says top hotelier

Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic’s tourism is expanding,surpassing two million visitors in the first quarter, National Hotels andTourism Association (ASONAHORES) president Simon Suarez affirmed Tuesday.

He said the fact that more than two million tourists havearrived in four months means that the figure can reach six million by yearend2016.

“To put it into perspective, the number of 10 millionexpected, could be reached by 2022,” Suarez said, interviewed by newspaper El Caribe.

"In the tourism projections we were always wrong, butI would say that we will have surpassed the ten million visitors in 2022,"the hotelier said.

Suarez’s projections are close to those repeatedly voicedby president Danilo Medina, that Dominican Republic can reach 10 million visitors in 10 years, a claim based on increasingforeigners’ arrival at a rate of one million per year.

"What’s most important in the 10 million goal is its positiveeffect on the rest of the economy, and tourism has done that."