HAITI/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The Dominican Republic’s tourist authorities and tour operators believe that the crisis in neighbouring Haiti won’t have a negative influence on national tourism.
Although the two countries share the island of Hispaniola, travel security experts say there is little chance that civil unrest in the poverty-stricken state of Haiti will spill across the border into the Dominican Republic, especially its tourist areas. Most of the country’s tourist resorts are in its southeast corner, about a ten-hour drive from the Haitian border. But most governments are warning their nationals on holiday in Dominican Republic to avoid border areas.
The Secretariat of Tourism announced that the tourist flows are stable as well as the scheduling through the Dominican airports and cruise ports, where Inter Duty Free Dominicana is the major travel retailer alongside Alfonso’s Duty Free and Esencias del Mundo (Panadom Internacional).
US State Department spokesman Steve Pike said in a statement: “We have not raised or changed our assessment of conditions in the Dominican Republic based on what is going on in Haiti.”
Experts believe the bigger issue for Dominican Republic visitors is the political situation there. Last month, for the second time in three months, a national strike to protest the government’s economic policies turned violent, ending in seven deaths. A worsening economic situation is resulting in some shortages of fuel and other basic supplies.
According to Caribbean Tourism Organization figures visits to Dominican Republic were up by +19.9% in January-September 2003. For January-May cruise visitors were 218,993, a rise of +54.3%.
