Frank Rainieri, legendary entrepreneur of the Tourism Industry in the Dominican Republic and creator of the tourist destination Puntacana, spoke with the ABC MUNDIAL team in Puerto Rico, during the WTTC Sustainability and Investment Summit.
“I think this has to be a wake-up call from the global tourism industry through the WTTC. We have to start with a short agenda of 3 or 4 common points and say that over the next 3 years we are going to eliminate this, or we are going to do that, and when we’ve achieved that goal, then on to the next step. I’m not here to talk about Puntacana. I’m proud of it, I can’t deny that, but we have to talk about the good things we could have done there in Puntacana and what we could do as the Caribbean, as institutions of the private tourism sector in the world,” says Rainieri.
“We have to divide the world into pre- and post-covid, as easy as that. Our habits have changed, for example how we manage communications. I don’t think I had had 2 zoom chats before covid, now I handle everything by zoom. Meetings, work, everything is virtual. There has been a huge change but that has also led to a greater family union in many aspects. People who used to work and have a few drinks after work, before getting home, or the woman who used to cook for her children, now spend time with the family and want to spend more time with the family. There has been a complete change in peoples’ attitude that is mirrored in tourism, there is more restlessness now “
“I was saying a moment ago on a panel here at the WTTC Summit that Instead of thinking about learning to dance merengue, which is what people did until recently and that was fine, they are now asking themselves what they can do to improve the sea conditions. They care about the barrier reef, they worry about plastic in the sea, they worry about the beach being in the best condition possible, focusing not on what’s the best for their enjoyment but the best environmentally. I said that people increasingly want and are now looking for are destinations where they have space, where they can travel by bicycle or jog, that type of activity is taking precedence over the activities that existed before.”
“I think there is a before and after in tourism and in people as well.” “We are living it in the Dominican Republic. Now everyone involved is pro-tourism because all of a sudden, the consumption of vegetables fell by 50% for example, there were no tourists to sell to during lockdown. Dominicans eats lettuce, rice and beans but don’t eat the other vegetables the producers had no one to sell them to.”
“Chicken sales also dropped by 20%. There was a crisis in the agricultural sector because they had no buyers and that has now made them allies of the tourism industry. It is as good as it gets, because the tourism industry is not only the hotelier, as it was perceived before, it is everyone, because everyone in the country benefit. Sometimes we forget that tourism is totally transversal. We see tourists and say the hoteliers win, but that’s not entirely true, everyone wins. The taxes that are paid to governments, the purchase of food products, industrial products, transportation, the construction of hotels, all these sectors are affected when the tourism industry slows down.”
Frank Rainieri is a legendary entrepreneur in the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic. He is the creator of the tourist destination Puntacana, friend of Oscar de la Renta and singer Julio Iglesias. The Puntacana Group he founded is made up of 23 companies and includes hotels, golf course, the airport and services such as electricity, security, schools, hospitals and a neighborhood of 30,000 houses.
Source:
ABC Mundial
