The Dominican Republic's Tourism Minister, Felix Jiménez, hosted an extravagant luncheon on the 51st floor of Toronto's Manulife Centre recently to announce US$1 billion in tourism infrastructure investment.
From now until 2012, the Dominican Republic government will use the money to build better roads, a new cruise ship marina, high-speed ferry service between Punta Cana and Samana and more luxury hotel rooms. Highway upgrades between Punta Cana to Santo Domingo will allow visitors to travel between the two cities in one third the travel time.
Jimenez said the country has already welcomed over 1.3 million visitors this year, 400,000 from Canada alone.
"We are very pleased with this impressive growth in tourism, and the new developments being planned will only improve our products as we continue to welcome record numbers of visitors from around the world," he said.
The Dominican Republic is located on the eastern part of the Hispaniola Island and was recently named the number one Caribbean destination for international visitors by the Caribbean Tourism Organization. Tourism is credited with fueling the countries impressive economic development that saw the GDP grow by double digits in 2006.
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