As a traveler myself, I find it disappointing that Freedom. Is a nice aspect to take into consideration. When travelling but as I have mentioned in my previous. Writings on the Dominican Republic, general safety and high crime rates are not the best. The tourism sector primarily operates within. The bounds of resort packages, with a majority of visitors staying in all-inclusive resorts. Resort developments can be found in four locations of the island— La Romana, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo, and Punta Cana.
About 65% of the country’s tourists arrive in Punta Cana International Airport (one of eight international airports). It is amid all-inclusive hotels. As one industry insider points out, “tourism is the oil of the Dominican Republic.4 ” While the seasons still have their highs and lows. Rates of occupancy have become more even throughout the year. Just like other areas in the Caribbean, the month of August tends to get all booked up a year in advance.
The private sector hasn’t been its healthiest in recent years— this could be from. A lack of willpower or do to some other underlying structural challenges, depending on individual outlook. But to get back to a healthy level, there should be a good relationship between local markets and private sectors/resorts. There are a few factors that hinder the tourism. And agricultural sectors in the Caribbean and Latin Americas. And it boils down to the supply and production-related problems.
Just a few of the many problems are; inconsistent or not enough quantities produced, poor quality, high prices, minor economies of scale amongst local farmers, inadequate growing conditions, access to financial services is not in reach, and poor labor supply due to the tourism sector. These issues need actions to related difficulties (preferences of high-end hotels and their guests for imported goods, distrust of local food due to sanitation concerns), and marketing/intermediary-related issues (failure to promote local goods, transportation and storage issues, and bureaucracy).
Furthermore, “primary production may suffer as a result of land, labor, and capital being invested in tourism,” this does not lead to the most successful agricultural result.6 Luxury resorts typically look for finer goods, AND inexpensive prices to their guests so as you can imagine, this can be hard to meet an equilibrium for local producers. Often resources are imported to meet the demands of the resorts. The Dominican tourism sector is remote, both geographically, because most tourism takes place in somewhat isolated parts of the country, and economically, because of the incentives and obvious presence of foreign hoteliers adding to economic leakages.7
The future is bright in pivoting into a more environmentally friendly future. Grupo Puntacana has been acclaimed as a sustainable development leader. Individuals form this group portion out protected land within its resort property. They enforce firm capacity guidelines in its R&D projects, and has established an ecological foundation that utilizes a variety of programs, like initiating a zero-waste program.
The Foundation has also partnered with several other institutions, including the Caribbean Tourism Organization (cto) and other U.S. universities (Harvard, Virginia tech, Cornell) on research and sustainability control initiatives. But the accomplishment of the Punta Cana airport also developed by Grupo Puntacana “has enabled the rapid and uncontrolled expansion of tourism in the region [and] only a few of the other resorts in the area share Grupo Punta Cana’s vision of sustainable tourism development.8”
As the Dominican tourism sector has grown in many ways, so have the professional capabilities of its workforce, with it come a raised standard of hiring requirements of its companies. Accessibility to a decent public education continues to be a critical hurdle in the Dominican Republic.
A 2010 survey by unesco rated primary education in the Dominican Republic as the poorest/worst in Central America and the Caribbean.9 Individuals in the tourism sector find it increasingly harder to obtain a decent job in this sector, as the baseline of education continues to expand. These higher baseline requirements have presented an employment barrier for those of a lower socioeconomic group.
