THE Dominican Republic is finally making a slow but sure comeback following the virtual collapse of its tourism market last year.
Some tour operators, including market leader Thomson, claim the destination is outperforming the rest of the Caribbean, which has had a sluggish start to the year.
Last year, UK visitors to the the Dominican Republic slumped by more than 20% following the much-publicised health scares in 1997.
As a result, the six British operators accounting for the lion’s share of the market – Thomson, Airtours, First Choice, Sunworld, Cosmos and Unijet – cut back capacity to the island by up to 40% for winter 1998/99 and summer ’99.
But operators say the market has been slowly returning since the Christmas period.
“The Dominican Republic still represents better value for money than anywhere else in the Caribbean and is staging what I believe is a genuine recovery, particularly for winter ’99/2000,” said Thomson long- haul planning manager Phil Boggon. “We still carry up to 50% of the summer UK market to the Dominican Republic and it remains larger than the rest of the Caribbean put together – slightly smaller than Florida.”
All hotels featured by Thomson and most other UK operators have passed strict hygiene tests and continue to operate under the guidelines of the food safety programme, known as Cristal.
Boggon said: “We do not feature a hotel if it refuses to adhere to the Cristal programme and our health and safety people also visit regularly. It’s had an excellent effect, and reported sickness levels have dropped more than 80% since summer ’97.”
Thomson and Airtours are beginning to expand into areas such as Punta Cana, on the island’s exclusive east coast.
Two leading hotel groups are opening new properties in Punta Cana this year. This winter, Spanish hotel group Sol Melia opens the second of four luxury hotels being built as part of its $82.8m Palma Real project announced in February. In November, all-inclusive group Allegro Resorts opens its sixth resort on the island, the 365-room Allegro Resort Bavaro Grand.
Luis del Omo, Sol Melia vice-president of sales and marketing, said: “UK tour operators such as Thomson and Airtours are slowly beginning to expand into Punta Cana and its beachside Bavaro area, and we are talking to them and other operators about featuring in summer 2000 brochures.”
Sol Melia claims that Palma Real will eventually be the largest hotel complex in the Caribbean. At present, only about 5% of Sol Melia’s business in the Dominican Republic is from the UK, its biggest market being Germany followed by Spain.
But del Omo claims the company is making its hotels more “UK friendly”, including teaching more of its staff to speak English.