Lawyer Enrique De Marchena believes it would be a “mistake” to abolish Law 158-01 on Tourist Incentives and reduce the tourism promotion budget used by the Ministry of Tourism to promote the Dominican Republic, as proposed by people linked to the issue.
“I don’t think we should demonize incentives because they have been extremely successful for the country. The incentives that were originally introduced under Law 153 in 1971 allowed the industry to establish itself, and, later on, the ones introduced in 2001 led to these past 21 years of expansion and success,” said the former president of the Dominican Hotels and Tourism Association and the Caribbean Association of Hotels and Tourism.
“I disagree. If an industry fails, of course you have to change course drastically, but a successful industry it calls for very careful maneuverings,” De Marchena said.
To support his stance, De Marchena clarified that the incentives granted to the tourism industry account for 1.5% of all the exemptions available and stated that for every Peso in incentives given by the Dominican State, the country receives nine-fold in returns, “it’s the best business”.
He indicated that any move made in relation to tourism development incentives and the country’s promotion budget would be a mistake, “because, beware, the rudder should not be turned merely on a conjectural basis.”
Any change of strategy must be made taking into account the competitive environment, and our tourism industry is the most open and vigorous sector of the Dominican economy because “it competes with the rest of the world.”
Former president of ASONAHORES, De Marchena spoke about the issue with economist Hector Linares on the program Puntos de Vistas (Points of View) which is broadcast every Sunday by Color Vision.
He said the suggestions to abolish the tourism incentives and the country’s budget are “unreasonable”, and “we must tread carefully with both issues. I’m not saying you can’t revise the law.”
“The same goes for the issue of promotion. No one can say the country doesn’t need a strong advertising, but we can’t just leave it at that, we’re strong and we have to stay strong”, de Marchena emphasized.
Revise the Law
He said that the law “will always need to be revised, especially under the current government that has shown such particular interest in the tourism sector. So how should this reflect the public policies you pointed to under this administration.”
De Marchena considered that the most important thing is “we want to expand, new tourist destinations, and that we’re going to grant these new destinations 15 years of incentives.”
40 years of successful tourism
After highlighting more than 40 years of success Dominican tourism in terms of jobs, quality of employment, and the generation of foreign exchange, De Marchena said “I’ve seen efforts by the current government in terms of managing the success of tourism, the driving force of our economy, bringing it to all corners of the country and I think that’s important.”
He stressed that the country is clearly recovering with enviable figures that look like this year will close with almost 7 million tourists and generate more than US$ 7 billion in foreign exchange form the tourism sector alone.
“Every day we get closer to our goal of 10 million tourists, a benchmark that must be made higher. If we follow the Spanish model of attracting 1.5 tourists per capita, then we’d be talking about attracting 12 or 13 million tourists to the country every year,” he concluded.
Source:
Resumen Turismo
