The president of the National Association of Hotels and Tourism (Asonahores), Rafael Blanco Tejera, said that tourism has once again been the number one economic activity in the country, during the inauguration of the Dominican Annual Tourism Exchange (DATE 2022), the main tourism fair held in the Dominican Republic.
He underlined that the country has received more than 2.2 million tourists in the first four months of the year with a forecast of more than seven million by the end of 2022.
He also highlighted that there are now more jobs in that industry than there were before the pandemic, which consolidates tourism as the main pillar of the national economy and the post-covid-19 recovery.
During his inaugural speech at the Barceló Convention Center hotel, together with the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, businessman Blanco Tejera said that “there is no other sector in the Dominican economy that has more productive chains than tourism; to talk about tourism is to talk about agriculture, industry, transport, foreign exchange, jobs, and of course, the thousands of MSMEs that supply goods and services to the sector”.
For Asonahores Dominican tourism is at its best, as demonstrated this week with the recognition from the World Tourism Organization that awarded the prize to the Dominican Republic as the number one country in the world in the recovery of tourism, demonstrated by the numbers of tourist arrivals, such as last month, when it was the best April in history for the country.
“This is also our best moment because here at DATE we have broken the record of exhibitors and attendees who come to do business in the country. This fills us with optimism that we will continue to grow, attract investments, generate jobs and thus continue to promote the development of the Dominican Republic,” said Blanco.
DATE will be held at the Barceló Convention Center Hotel in Bavaro until Friday 13, with over 800 delegates from more than 25 source countries for tourists with very promising business expectations. In addition, more than 50 members of the international press and more than 100 members of the national press will participate in DATE, with live programs, broadcast in different countries and with an agenda of visits to tourist destinations that help promote the country internationally, actions that have been carried out hand in hand with the team of the Ministry of Tourism.
Source:
Hoy