Project Description
The Dominican Republic has already built a strong tourism industry—in 1972, the DR had only 1,600 hotel rooms; today it has over 60,000. While the industry has been successful to date, it faces new challenges brought on by rapid worldwide economic growth and, most importantly, a change in consumer demand towards sustainable tourism. Specifically, the DR needs to find ways to evolve from it’s antiquated “all-inclusive” model and transform its numerous natural, historical, and cultural tourism assets into a thriving sustainable tourism industry that addresses the DR’s major social, economic and environmental issues, including widespread poverty, slow economic expansion, and environmental degradation.
The purpose of the USAID-Dominican Republic Sustainable Tourism Alliance’s (DSTA) is to increase small and medium business growth in an environmentally sustainable manner through market-driven sustainable tourism development linkage programs, cluster activities, and a reinvention of the tourism offerings on fragile coastal and inland environments. To conserve biodiversity and better manage the country’s natural resource base, the DSTA brought together a world-class team of individuals and institutions from the public, private, and NGO sectors as well as leading national, regional, and international tourism industry enterprises, of which Solimar was a part, to address the multi-dimensional aspects of sustainable tourism in the DR.
Major Activities
- Developed Destination Management Organizations (DMOs): Advanced the tourism clusters established under USAID’s Competitiveness and Policy Program (La Romana-Bayahibe, Jarabacoa, Barahona, Puerto Plata, Altagracia, and Samaná), as well as the newly formed clusters in Pedernales, Santo Domingo, and Constanza, toward self-sufficiency and sustainability by transforming them into functioning Destination Management Organizations (DMOs).
- Built Capacity: Strengthened environmental management capabilities and supported small, medium, and community-based tourism enterprises through training in sustainable tourism operations and the development of marketing and sales strategies.
- Identified and Developed New Tourism Offerings: Reinvented tourism products in fragile coastal and inland environments and developed sustainable tourism packages and day-trip experiences focused on adventure, culture, and nature-based tourism, beyond traditional sun-and-sand offerings.
- Established Strategic Alliances: Developed and managed strategic alliances and partnerships to support sustainable tourism development and strengthen collaboration among key stakeholders.
Results
- 9 self-sustained Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) with completed business plans, sales and marketing strategies, and pilot projects.
- 20 small, medium, and community-based tourism enterprises supported with completed business plans, training in tourism operations and with sales and marketing strategies that connect them to international tourism markets.
- Tourism product development and training methodologies developed for the DR and transferred to local actors through a network of cluster mechanisms known as the Dominican Tourism Competitiveness Council to continue supporting the goals of the DSTA.
- Development of “Dominican Treasures”, a Sales and Marketing Alliance supported by the consorcio which will provide continued assistance to a number of small and community-based tourism enterprises throughout the country.
- Sustainable tourism packages and day tours developed to collectively change the image of the Dominican Republic as solely a sun and sand destination to a more versatile destination that includes adventure tourism, ecotourism, and cultural and historical tourism.
- Creation of at least 5 strategic alliances and 3 co-management agreements that formalize actions, roles, and responsibilities for destination stewardship by local communities thus promoting economic livelihood and political empowerment.
