Dominican Hotel Chains Willing to Make Fresh Investments

A press release put out by the Dominican Republic’s Tourism Department points out that the Caribbean nation’s seven largest hotel chains are willing to pour cash into Bahia de las Aguilas, in the southeastern portion of the country.

The communiqué does not mention what hotel chains will be interested in engaging in the investment process, yet it warns “a thorough study will be carried out in order to determine the feasibility of future tourism investments.” With that view in mind, officials from the country’s Department of Environmental Protection will designate a blue-ribbon panel to join the special research team.

However, ecological groups have voiced concern over the possibility that some hotels could be built in a major protected area, an unexplored region that also ranks among the poorest in the entire Dominican Republic.

Bahia de las Aguilas is a privileged area for the practice of ecotourism within the Jaragua National Park, declared a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO back in 2002.

Lying some 205 miles west of Santo Domingo, the Jaragua National Park is blessed with 13 miles of unexplored beaches, an amount good enough to make it one of the Caribbean’s top ecological reserves.

Tourism is the main income source for the Dominican Republic, accounting for nearly 20 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.