DR Hires Rubenstein PR.

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Rubenstein Public Relations to help build back DR reputation

The Dominican Republic has hired New York-based Rubenstein Public Relations to reverse damages to the country's reputation. For weeks, leading US media has been keeping track of US citizen deaths in the Dominican Republic. The tracking has given the impression that tourists are dropping dead in the country for mysterious reasons. The uncertainty caused by all the hype has had a chilling effect on investment and travel to the country. The Dominican Republic is the preferred destination for US travelers, with over 3.3 million tourists visiting in 2018. It is also the principal investment and trading partner with the United States in the Caribbean.

Carlos Castillo, Consul General of the Dominican Republic in New York, signed the contract with Rubenstein. The firm is known for devising compelling campaigns for recognized luxury brands in sectors including real estate, fashion, design and consumer products. Its expertise is in building reputation. Clients represented by the firm are Jaguar and Land Rover Manhattan, Miss Universe Organization, the New York Yankees and several New York mayors, among others.

According to media reports, Rubenstein Public Relations has participated in helping New York City build back its reputation during various crises the city has faced, including the bankruptcy issues in the 70s, race disputes, several real estate crashes, and times when the city had such a terrible reputation they were losing tourism as a major form of revenue.

In one of the first moves by the agency, the company issued a press release with a statement from Dominican ambassador in the United States, José Tomás Pérez, welcoming Senator Chuck Schumer's recent suggestion of increased US involvement to bring further clarity to the recent cases involving American tourists.

https://www.rubensteinpr.com/

New tourism projects approved.

More tourism projects on the way
The Tourism Development Board (Confotur) of the Ministry of Tourism announced that eight tourism development projects, calling for an investment of US$467.5 million, were recently approved. They authorized 2,212 additional hotel rooms. Developments approved involve hotels, aparthotels, residences and condos in La Altagracia (Punta Cana) and El Seibo (Miches) in the east, Puerto Plata in the north, Samaná in the northeast, and Santo Domingo, the central capital city. 

So far in 2019, Confotur has approved 33 tourism initiatives, an investment of US$2.86 billion, and 14,669 new accommodation units. 

Investors come from Panama, the United States, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, France, Argentina and the Dominican Republic. 

Among the larger projects approved by Confotur in 2019 are: 
Perla del Sur in La Cienaga, Barahona with 955 rooms
Melia Caribe Tropical expansion with 1,056 rooms in Bavaro
Macao Alto Resort with 2,153 rooms in Macao, in northern Punta Cana
Hotel Finest Punta Cana with 455 rooms
Los Corales Blue Resort with 551 rooms 
Others on the list of new developments are Club Med Miches, Azul Sensatori, Hyatt Cap Cana, Excellence El Carmen. 

https://almomento.net/r-dominicana-a....ria-inversion/
https://mitur.gob.do/transparencia/i...tegory/2019-15

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8 million travelers arrive in first half of year.

Nearly eight million travelers arrived in first half of the year
The Civil Aviation Board (JAC) has reported that 7.9 million passengers moved through the nation's airports in the first six months of 2019. Luis Ernesto Camilo, director at JAC, told reporters that this is evidence that the recent anti-Dominican tourism campaign that kept negative news in social media and in newspapers and television in the United States, had not destroyed the Dominican appeal for foreigners. These arrivals have represented a 4.8% increase year to year. In March, there were 1.5 million passengers, also a substantial increase of 5% year to year. In June, nevertheless, travel slumped, with bookings and cancellations reacting to the negative press coverage. 

Among the top five airlines servicing the Dominican Republic, four are from the United States: Jet Blue, American, Delta and United. Also noted by the JAC director was the fact that Punta Cana continues to be the busiest airport in the country, followed by Las Americas, Santiago, and Puerto Plata.

https://eldia.com.do/mas-de-7-millon...eron-del-pais/

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Flight bookings on the rise.

As reported by DR1.

Flight bookings and cancellations returning to normal
The slump in air bookings and increases in flight cancellations to the Dominican Republic that coincided with media coverage of tourist deaths in the country appears to be reversing, according to ForwardKeys. From 1 June to 2 July, air bookings from the United States to the Dominican Republic for July and August had fallen by 84.4%, when compared to the equivalent period in 2018, ForwardKeys said. But now the publication reports that by 26 June, bookings were again exceeding cancellations. 

FowardKeys also found wavering interest in the Caribbean destinations that seemed to be benefiting from the Dominican Republic's decline: the recent increases in air bookings to Jamaica, Bahamas and Aruba fell starting 26 June. Jamaica, for example, which had experienced a 54.3% year-over-year increase in bookings 17 to 25 June, was only up 13.4% from 26 June to 2 July. The Bahamas was up 45.3% 17-25 June but up 13.3% from 26 June to 2 July.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Caribbe...to-bounce-back
https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...hs/1671472001/
https://pagesix.com/2019/07/08/sopra...ourist-deaths/

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DR TOURISM JAN-MAY 2019 / DR1 reporting.

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Tourist numbers at the end of May 2019
The Central Bank released on schedule the data for May 2019. May data shows the usual increase in visitors. According to figures published by the Central Bank, the number of tourists arriving in the country from January to May 2019 was 2,988,155 non-resident visitors, which is 134,157 more than the same period last year, a 4.7% year on year increase.

Looking at the non-resident foreign visitors, which accounted for 87.2% of the total, there was an increase of 3.5%, 86,958 more than last year, while non-resident Dominican arrivals increased by 12.8%.

Looking at May alone, there were 527,732 non-resident visitors, which is a 4.3% increase over last year, and the foreign visitors within that figure increased by 2.4%, whereas non-resident Dominicans increased by 16.1%.

Total air passengers arriving in Dominican airports, including residents, was 3,245,147 from January to May, which is a 4.6% increase over the same period last year. 

Looking at the same period, 64% of the tourist arrivals were from North America (US, Canada and Mexico), 21.2% from Europe, 11.4% from South America, 3.1% from Central America and the Caribbean, and the remaining 0.3% from Asia and the rest of the world.

The region with the highest increase in arrivals from January to May was North America, with 123,567 more visitors for an 8% growth. Most of the increase was due to entries from the United States (114,532), followed by Mexico (6,750) and Canada (2,285).

There was also an increase in passengers from Central America and the Caribbean at 7.0%. South America showed a decrease of 4.2%, with 13,074 fewer arrivals than the same period in 2018. 

The countries responsible for the decrease were Argentina (-16,272), Venezuela (-7,917) and Uruguay (-1,014), but there were increases from Chile (4,702), Colombia (4,151), Bolivia (1,053), Brazil (925) and Peru (900). 

Regarding tourists from Europe, these numbers also decreased by 28,972, representing a 5% decrease, mainly due to decreases from Germany (-11,366), England (-10,382), France (-7,072), Sweden (-4,617), Spain (-2,224), Portugal (-1,906) and Belgium (-1,585). These were partially compensated for by increase in arrivals from Poland (3,401), Italy (2,453), Ukraine (2,000), and Romania (1,350). 

The majority of the foreign tourist arrivals landed at the Punta Cana airport at 67.2%, followed by Las Americas in Santo Domingo with 15.5% of the total, and Puerto Plata at 8.5%. The other airports of La Romana, Cibao, La Isabela and El Catey made up the remaining 8.8%.

The demographic profile of the tourist arrivals is of 58.7% aged between 21 and 49 years, and 53.9% female.

https://www.diariolibre.com/economia...019-EL13189973

ARE FEARS ABOUT AMERICAN DEATHS IN THE D.R.OVERBLOWN?

CNN: Perception doesn't match the data
A commentary on CNN by Michael Smerconish focuses on the constant media coverage of deaths and illnesses in the Dominican Republic, which has led the public to believe there is a sudden surge in unexplained deaths. "But that doesn't match the data," says Smerconish.

He shares that the US State Department itself has commented on the matter: "We do not publish statistics regarding natural deaths abroad. However, speaking generally, over 2.7 million US citizens visit the DR each year, and we have not seen an uptick in the number of US citizen deaths reported to the Department."

Smerconish compares the media coverage to the perfect storm of circumstances that lead to a whirlwind of publications that dubbed the summer of 2001 "shark summer" and later proved to be "more hype than fact". He explains that human nature is fatalistic and pessimistic by nature, "even when the numbers prove otherwise."

A feature in The New York Times also looks into the string of reports on deaths, most for heart-related conditions. It addressed how the all-inclusive deals with all you can eat meals and beverage plans could worsen vulnerable health conditions of the tourists. It points to how the Hard Rock Punta Cana hotel has decided to remove the liquor dispenser bottles from their rooms and is contracting a US-based health care facility to ensure the on-site health clinic is complying with all international and US standards of care."

ACCESS ROAD AND MAIN RESORT ROAD UPGRADE/MAINTENANCE

As of May 9th, we got out the bulldozer and bladed the 1.6K access road  from the Maimon coastal highway to the front door of the property and the main artery road in the center of the development.  We would normally do this as a matter of general maintenance due to natural erosion from the rain the weather, but in this case we are taking the next step with our project lender to do a site verification of the land and its condition.  This simple update allows for easier access to the site and managing around the site to and from the top to the beach at the site.  

We are looking forward to updating everyone in the coming weeks the next steps through the completion of the lending process and getting the full site infrastructure underway.  

Stay tuned….

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC'S HOTEL BOOM CONTINUES

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The Dominican Republic is continuing a full-fledged hotel development boom, according to new data from hotel analytics firm STR.

The Caribbean’s most popular tourism destination has a total of 6,200 rooms in construction right now, or 8.7 percent of its existing hotel supply.

That’s easily the largest number of rooms in construction of any Caribbean destination, followed by Cuba, which has 600 rooms in construction, or 0.9 percent of its supply.

That comes after the Dominican Republic saw a 6 percent growth in its hotel stock in 2018, according to data from the country’s Ministry of Tourism.

Last year’s additions increased the Dominican Republic’s hotel supply by 4,365 rooms.

The country now boasts 80,256 hotel rooms.

READ MORE

LOE SITE VIDEO – FEB 2019

All is well and blue skies at Luperon Ocean Estates development site. Our team was on site for meetings and planning the pending construction. We took the opportunity to shoot some drone footage of the property on a blue bird day in Luperon. The weather has been mild and a bit of rain in the area for January and February but typically 80 degrees most days. On our way to the site we saw first hand the vast amount of road construction in the area. From the highway that connects Santiago to Puerto plata, to route 30 that connects Luperon to Puerto plata which is fully upgraded and the eastern side of the Maimon Costal highway that is getting much wider and fully upgraded. Enjoy the footage. More to follow…

TOURISM MINISTER ANNOUNCES THAT PUERTO PLATA'S MOMENTS HAS ARRIVED

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As if we did not see this coming for a while now, the proof reported by Dominican Today Dec 26, 2018.  The Minister of Tourism, Francisco Javier Garcia said that this moment has arrived for the destination on the north cost of the country, an affirmation evidenced in the numerous vital investments made in recent years in the region.  In the last two months there have been multiple announcements on a grand scale regarding project that have just started and many others in the mid term planning stages from The Ritz hotels to Condominium projects in Sosua, a new Cruise port in Puerto Plata from Norwegian Cruise lines and many other projects in response the an extremely high occupancy rate and a fast growing tourism sector of the DR economy.   

READ MORE HERE

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MAIMON COASTAL HIGHWAY UPGRADE - AGAIN

January 5, 2019.  As reported by Eric Urbahn (LOE project Architect). Saturday our project Architect reported that on a drive from Luperon to Maimon (The Maimon Coastal Highway) was under heavy construction in the section from Cambiaso to Maimon.  As a reference a year ago the section from Luperon to Cambiaso was upgraded by the town of Luperon as a hard pack gravel or Caliche Road. It's a very big improvement over the rough rutted cart part that was the previous road.  The section from Cambiaso which is the bay beach just to the east of LOE was not upgraded.  The report is as follows:  Road work seen today on the Maimon - Cambiaso road.  Many big trucks, and at one site, two large tanks that said "productos asfaltos" next to what looked like a small asphalt plant...right next to the road.  

This is fantastic news for LOE.  This will mean that the closer direct route from Puerto Plata will be a full paved road cutting a large amount of time off the drive form the Puerto Plata Airport.  More to follow on the updates with this news and upgrade.  



RECORD NUMBER OF TOURISTS FOR 2018

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January 8,2018, as reported by DR1.com and Dominican Today.  The Central Bank of the Dominican Republic says 2018 will close surpassing the mark of 6.5 million tourist arrivals. This is an increase of 650,000 non-resident visitors. Revenues are estimated to surpass US$7.61 billion at the year's end, up 6% compared to 2017, or about US$433 million more. 

Central Bank Governor revealed on 28 December 2018 that preliminary results for the year show the tourism sector grew 5.6%. Travel from January to November 2018 was up 6.3%.

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TOURISM EXCEEDS 20% OF D.R. GPD

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Reported in September of 2018, the tourism in DR now exceeds 20% of the countries GDP. This is noted from the Dominican Hotels and Tourism Association (ASONAHORES). This may be surprising to many people who might believe the tourism is the largest sector of the GDP, but it still remains smaller than the Agriculture and manufacturing and mining sectors on the island. But with the National governments support to make the tourism sector a growing percentage of the GDP, the results are now starting to show. This means continued infrastructure support and international investment in the services and support that surround tourism. 

INVESTORS PRESENT PRESIDENT DANILO MEDINA LUXURY TOURISM PROJECT IN PUERTO PLATA, WILL GENERATE 2 THOUSAND DIRECT JOBS

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A group of foreign investors met today with President Danilo Medina and expressed their interest in transforming the northern coast of the country into a luxury tourism destination. During the meeting with the President of the Republic, which took place in the Private Room of the National Palace, executives from Mariott International, The Luxury Collection, W Hotels and Ritz-Carlton Reserve presented the project whose investment will exceed 350 million dollars and will create more than 2,000 direct jobs.

Marriot International and the real estate developers of The Ocean Club Group join forces to establish a new tourism standard in the Dominican Republic.  Speaking at the Orlando Martínez Hall of the National Palace, at the end of the meeting with Danilo Medina, Ian Schembri-Sant, CEO of The Ocean Club and one of the developers of the broad project, said that the purpose is to establish the northern coast of the island as one of the main luxury tourism destinations.  He reported that, in partnership with the Marriot brand, three luxury hotels will be built.

The best of the Best

collection The Luxury Collection," he explained.  He said they focus their efforts on one thing: bring back to the Dominican Republic 1% of the market of luxury travelers that will come from all over the world.  Meanwhile, Bojan Kume, vice president of Marriot International, said they are very happy to be in the Dominican Republic.  "Here we can completely transform the north coast, as a luxury destination and we are happy."                                      

Formidable news for Puerto Plata and the rest of the country

On his side, Francisco Javier García, Minister of Tourism, explained that it was a truly important meeting.  "They wanted to present directly to the President the project they have: three luxury hotels, companies of extraordinary international recognition."  He stressed that having in the country the founder of Ritz Carlton, a recognized brand and have selected the province of Puerto Plata, for the construction of these three projects that exceed the 350 million dollars of investment, "is without a doubt a formidable news to close the year in what has to do with Puerto Plata. " 

The meeting was also attended by:  · Ángel Estévez, Minister of the Environment.  · Flavio Darío Espinal, legal consultant to the Executive Branch  · Remy Teuma, executive director of the Investment Bank Messier Marris of New York.  · Juan Francisco Cordero, director of The Ocean Club Group  · Carlos Aguilar, architect of the GVA company in Mexico

D.R. NAMED CARIBBEAN TOP GOLF DESTINATION

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A published report in late October, 2018 stated that the Dominican Republic was named Latin America and Caribbeans best golf destination 2019. There are a growing number of tourists and golfers that love to travel to destination golf resorts are landing on the island for all the variety of top courses from the north coast to the south and south east – we have some of the best. Our own north coast is blessed with two of the best. Both Robert Trent Jones designed courses and both are easily accessible by car from LOE.  

D.R. TOPS REGION FOR TOURISM INCOME

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A very recent report declared that the Dominican Republic reached 7.2 Billion in tourism income for the current year-to-date, which put them at the top in the entire region of the Caribbean. This is all great news for LOE and the surrounding North Coast of DR. Stronger tourism will continue to drive people to visit, invest and promote the island for all the reasons we know about.