Puerto Plata. President Luis Abinader led the inauguration of the new Taíno Bay tourist and cargo terminal, with an investment of 80 million dollars in an initial stage, in a public-private partnership.
The President also attended the reopening of the Senator hotel in the municipal district of Maimón and in Sosúa listened to the investors in The Ocean Club project, Luxury Collection Resort, part of the Marriott chain. The President also presided over the ceremony marking the arrival of the first cruise ship to the new port, the MSC Seahore, with 1,700 tourists from Miami, USA.
The construction of the multipurpose port that began in January 2019 will generate 1,500 direct jobs and 3,500 indirect jobs and will see the arrival of more than 700,000 cruise passengers to the country by 2022, according to Mauricio Hamui,CEO of the company ITM.
In support of this tourist destination, Abinader announced that, next year, the Ministry of Tourism will be allocating about 150 million pesos for the historic area of Puerto Plata in a public-private partnership.
The new Taíno Bay port has three docking sites and a passenger reception center large enough to accommodate about 14,000 cruise passengers at one time. This terminal will generate about one thousand 500 direct jobs and three thousand five hundred indirect jobs.
The President said that the country will be receiving the most important international cruise companies, such as Royal Caribbean Cruises, Virgin Voyages, MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, TUI Cruises, Celebrity Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises.
The CEO of ITM and Taíno Bay, Mauricio Hamui, described the port as a great infrastructure work which involved docks, backfilling, dredging and piles sunk more than 40 meters deep in record time.
“This is thanks to the effort of our people who worked around the clock to make this a reality,” Hamui said.
For his part, the general administrator of the Reserve Bank, Samuel Pereyra, reiterated the banking institution´s support of the Dominican tourism industry and the project, where it joins the private initiative that drives this vital sector of the local economy.
He said that by supporting in this way, the institution sends out a message of commitment, confidence, and optimism to current and potential customers in the tourism sector while expanding the modality of cruise travel with an additional port, actively focusing on a variety of innovative projects, contributing to the country´s development and sustainable growth.
The Minister of Tourism, David Collado, emphasized that the country is looking at an historic recovery of tourism, which has been confirmed by the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) and the World Tourism Organization that have set the Dominican Republic as a global example of tourism management in the midst of the pandemic.
“To date, 170,000 jobs have been recovered in international promotion, a great mystery for years, the Tourism Cabinet and the Ministry of Tourism have saved more than 3 billion pesos in a single year, we are being much more effective, and we are being much more efficient with public spending and that is the vision of the Government of Change,” Collado highlighted. Monsignor Julio César Corniel Amaro, bishop of the diocese of Puerto Plata led the blessing of both works.
Confidence in tourism investments highlighted
The executive director of the Port Authority, Jean Luis Rodríguez, said that this terminal will guarantee the growth and dynamism of the economy for the entire northern area and the country.
The building council of San Felipe de Puerto Plata declared December 15 a municipal holiday in celebration of the arrival of the first ocean liner of the company Puerto Plata Investment (Taíno Bay terminal).
Meanwhile, during the reopening of the Senator hotel, the president of the hotel chain, José María Rossell, said that the reopening speaks to the trust placed in this tourist destination. However, to boost the arrival of foreign tourists he said we must work with tour operators so more flights arrive here.
He recalled a total investment of 100 million dollars was invested in the building – 40 million in remodeling and 60 for the purchase. The President showed his delight at the trust placed by businessmen during the event and said that he estimates new investments in the industrial sector at 80 billion.
Source:
El Caribe
