Luis Simó, Dominican Tourism Undersecretary, on the outcomes of his meeting with the CTOBy Jose Carlos de Santiago (ITB 03/14/05)

CND: How much money does the Dominican Republic chip in to the CTO every year?

LS: As we speak, over $150,000.

CND: Has the CTO supported the Dominican Republic in the past?

LS: No.

CND: Does the Dominican Republic believe in a strong, solid Caribbean as a region?

LS: Yes.

CND: Do you believe the Spanish language should be represented at the CTO?

LS: Yes, I do.

CND: Do you believe the funds contributed by the European Community have been distributed evenly by the CTO?

LS: No, that´s not been the case.

CND: What agreements did you reach with the CTO in this meeting?

LS: First of all, we´ve agreed to resume the managerial information system for the Dominican Republic in an effort to determine exactly the results of tourist activities in the country. This managerial information system was implemented by our government between 1996 and 2000, but it couldn´t be completed and we´ll now try to start it over as part of the programs bankrolled by the European Union for the CTO.

In the same breath, we´re going to resume a series of seminars sponsored by the CTO, aimed at cabdrivers and at the professional training of tour operators all over the country. Moreover, we´ve coordinated with the CTO´s secretary-general to knock together a musical, gastronomic and handicraft festival for late September in the city of Santo Domingo. This festival has been an initiative cooked up by the country´s Tourism Department, especially by Secretary Felix Jimenez who sees in this event an opportunity to paint a solid cultural picture of the Caribbean and increase tourist arrivals during the off-peak travel season.

CND: Will that gastronomic festival be the Dominican´s Taste of the Caribbean?

LS: It´ll be something more than a purely cuisine-oriented festival, but rather an expression of how diverse the Caribbean really is when it comes to culture, music and handicrafts. This could, of course, lay the grounds for an event that could take place in the region on a yearly basis. The Dominican Republic is not interested in stealing the thunder at the show, but just putting forth this initiative that was okayed by the CTO´s front office, and even take this event to other countries in the Caribbean.

CND: Will it then be like, say, the Caribbean Festival in Santiago de Cuba?

LS: Not exactly. It´s similar to the festival in Santiago de Cuba, but it´s going to have different cultural expressions of the Caribbean, with emphasis on music, food and handicrafts. In the same way, we´ve managed to put together a scholarship program with the CTO that should also be coordinated with the Tourism Department and the Tourism Ministry of the Dominican Republic, in order to give tourism professional from across the country access to those scholarships for master degree courses and post-graduation courses. We also agreed to participate in a program called Youth Congress, that will unfold within the framework of the annual Caribbean Tourism Conference, and we´re going to organize juvenile attendance at the next conference to be held in October in a Caribbean destination. We´ve also talked on the possibility that Luis Chavez, a expert that was designated by the CTO to advise on sustainable tourism planning and policies, could go to the Dominican Republic to work in some orientation programs aimed at better qualifying the Dominican travel destination. We have equally sat down with the top brass of the CTO with a view to activate a number of PR companies they have deployed in European countries, so that these agencies could help strengthen the tourist image of the Dominican Republic.

We´ve also mapped out a well-structured plan with the CTO to get consulting services on a number of programs related to healthcare and tourism. I think the meeting is an example of the level of mutual cooperation with this regional organization that we believe it´s very important, not only in the efforts to formulate tourism-oriented policies, but also in the efforts to get the kind of technical cooperation that we need to count on right now to continue improving the Dominican tourist product.

CND: Going back to those $150,000 granted annually by the Dominican Republic to the CTO. Will there be any kind of promotional or publicity action to target the European market, especially the Spanish market, with the help of the CTO?

LS: Well, we´ve weighed the possibility of using the CTO´s different chapters in different European countries in a systematic way, and we also toyed with the possibility of joining the regional marketing programs sponsored by the CTO in Europe. In that sense, we were told the CTO has a good chance of getting better offers as far as publicity in Europe is concerned. And in this respect, we´ve established a mechanism to use both the CTO chapters and PR offices for that particular goal.

CND: How can you use that option, taking account of the fact that the CTO only covers a tiny part of Europe?

LS: We´re going to work hard to get the project going at the PR offices in Germany and in the United Kingdom. We´re basically interested in counting on that kind of support. The Tourism Department already has another PR offer in other European countries that´s been subjected to study, and we also have some offices that coordinate publicity efforts in different countries across Europe. Thus, these PR offices in Germany and in the U.K. are going to provide additional support to all promotional activities aimed at buttressing the travel destination´s image.

CND: But, won´t it be good for the CTO to have offices in other European countries?

LS: Yes, we should always do a better job. But for the time being, the Dominican Republic will use the CTO´s existing structure to further ramp up the image of the travel destination.