The Dominican Republic successfully closes its participation in the International Tourism Fair (FITUR 2023) with more than US$1,645 million in investments for this year 2023, several connectivity agreements with the main airlines and a projection with the arrival of approximately 7.8 million tourists by air and more than two million cruise passengers.
The information was offered by the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, during a breakfast at the Casino of Madrid, Spain, to publicize the results of the country’s participation in the 43rd edition of FITUR 2023.
He revealed that winter is oversold and that the month of January may exceed historical projections with 850,000 foreigners from the European market.
“In the end we built a success story with more than 7 million tourists by air and one million three hundred thousand on cruise ships. This year we are projecting the arrival of two million cruise passengers and also between 7.7 and 7.8 million foreigners, if there is no difficulty in the world,” the official said.
Collado stated that he feels happy, excited and with the satisfaction of having fulfilled his duty, because the country once again shone at FITUR.
He stressed that the concrete results are there and cited new investments from Hollywood in Cap Cana with US$50 million; Sport Illustrated US$50 million, the Pioneer Investment Fund US$2,000 million, in Macao, and starts this year with US$250 million with the entry into the country for the first time of the luxury and all-inclusive Ritz Carlton Hotel.
In addition, a Hyatt, with US$90 million and US$50 million in the remodeling of its hotels in Punta Cana; Zemi and the Rainieri family announced a US$200 million investment in Miches; Rafael Blanco, from Viva Windham, will invest US$150 million, Grupo Fuerte announced US$325 million in 1,000 rooms in Miches; Four Seasons, owned by the Cisneros family for US$200 million and the Rainieri family for US$135 million.
Also, Encarna Piñero announced that it will invest US$100 million in Bahía Príncipe, US$50 million in 2023 and another US$50 in 2024.
“We have investments of US$3,645 million and of those US$3,645 million, US$1,645 enter this year 2023,” said Collado.
Also speaking were the senior executive vice president of national and international business of Banco Popular Dominicano (BPD), René Grullón; the administrator of the Reserve Bank, Samuel Pereyra; the Vice President of the Republic Raquel Peña, Jacqueline Mora and Tammy Reynoso.
Grullón highlighted that the work carried out after the pandemic has been “spectacular and has led us to where we are today” and only on Sunday they arrived at FITUR with more than 40 meetings, with 12 projects of almost 4,000 rooms, more than US$1,000 million of investment and US$600 million of commercial loans “and that doubled in these four days”.
He revealed that there are already 10 new projects and an increase in the projection of the country.
Meanwhile, the administrator of the Banco de Reservas pointed out that a sign of President Luis Abinader’s support for the tourism sector is the presence for the first time of a vice president of the Republic at a tourism fair.
He indicated that this is the best year of the bank’s participation in FITUR, where it closed more than 55 meetings that project investments of more than US$4,000 million and financing requests for more than US$2,300 million in new investments for the construction of 6,000 new rooms.
He explained that the new destinations have Miches as protagonists, with two financings, one for a 500-room hotel (of the Rainieri family); and the Fort with 1,000 new rooms, which together with others add up to more than 2,000 new rooms. He highlighted the alliance of the banks Popular Dominicano (BPD), BHD and Reservas, which although they compete, are doing business as a single bank in support of the Dominican Republic.
The Vice Minister of Tourism, Jacqueline Mora, said that this Thursday the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) gave the most recent results of the behavior of the sector, which indicate a 37% drop in tourism activity in the world in 2022, while the Republic The Dominican Republic closed with a growth of more than 10% and an arrival of 8.5 million visitors, adding those from cruise ships, one million more than in the pre-pandemic, “and that is an unusual result.”
He argued that this is due to the recovery plan implemented by MITUR and coordinated with all the actors, as well as by the union and the support of the government and the private sector.
Mora said that at FITUR 2023 “we are going strong”, while MITUR’s Deputy Minister of Promotion and Development, Tammy Reynoso, indicated that eleven cooperation agreements were signed at this fair that will directly impact the different destinations of Puerto Plata, Samaná , Santo Domingo, and Romana, Bayahibe. “We are going to have an arrival of around 780,000 tourists for the rest of the winter and summer,” projected the MITUR official.
“All we are seeing today is a harvest,” said the deputy minister, after making a count since July-August 2020 of all the work of the Government and the Ministry of Tourism for the recovery after the pandemic.
Launch Punta Brigantin
Speaking at the launch of the Punta Bergantín project, in Puerto Plata, during a ceremony at the Casino de Madrid, the Minister of Tourism once again explained the details of the investments in each new project and introduced Jordi Pelfort, representative of the chain of hotels that goes to Punta Bergantín and president of Blue Diamont Resorts.
The project will have 6,760 residential rooms, an innovation center and a film studio that will be installed jointly with the international firm One Race Films, chaired by actor Vin Diesel and a modern 18-hole golf course and the first Hotel Planet Hollywood. Vice President Raquel Peña participated in the activity.
