Delays and worries<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s reason for skepticism. The Caribbean is littered with grandiose tourism plans that failed. And some worry this project is so massive, so ambitious, it could collapse under its own weight. The first tranche of hotel rooms \u2014 about 1,600 \u2014 was slated to be delivered in 2024. It\u2019s still under construction. While roads have been chewed up for miles in preparation for expansion, few have been repaved.<\/p>\n
Despite the delays, the project is already reshaping the local economy, said Carlos Peguero, the deputy minister of tourism charged with spearheading the work. Thousands of jobs have been created in a region so small that temporary workers are being bused in from neighboring Haiti. (While the Dominican Republic is deporting Haitians en masse, they remain a major part of the country’s construction workforce.)<\/p>\n
Sitting in his Santo Domingo office stacked with renderings and architectural plans, Peguero said the project isn\u2019t just another tourism play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president is trying to develop the south of the country using tourism as an engine,\u201d he said. \u201cBut this is, first and foremost, a social and economic development project for the people who live in that area.\u201d
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe entire region is now under a master plan that was hammered out with local leaders and includes more than 130 public policies and regulations to control gentrification, preserve the environment, promote economic development and ensure the project is sustainable long term, Peguero said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re building this from zero,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re trying to avoid mistakes we\u2019ve made in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
In June, Grupo Puntacana, the country\u2019s premier tourism developer, was brought in to boost private sector participation.<\/p>\n
Punta Cana serves as a model and inspiration for Pedernales. In 1983, after years of sometimes bitter negotiations, a group of investors opened up a private international airport on the country\u2019s under-developed east coast. Now that airport is the nation\u2019s busiest, receiving more than 8 million passengers a year who have turned Punta Cana into one of the Caribbean\u2019s premier destinations.<\/p>\n
Still, the private sector can\u2019t develop Pedernales on its own, Peguero said, estimating that some $1 billion has already been pumped into the project. Officials, for example, recently opened a new water treatment plant for the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president has always been clear that the state had to build the sewers and the roads and the electricity and the infrastructure,\u201d Peguero said. \u201cIf we waited for the private sector to do that, it would never happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tourism, spending surge<\/strong><\/p>\nGrupo Puntacana said it was too early to discuss their involvement and referred questions to the government. Iberostar and Hyatt, two of the most high-profile hotel operators, also declined to talk about the project.<\/p>\n
Tourism is a safe bet for the nation, where the industry makes up an estimated 16% of gross domestic product. The country received a record-breaking 8 million visitors in the first eight months of 2025, up 2.8% from last year and 49% from the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, the Ministry of Tourism said in a statement. The Dominican Republic saw 11.2 million travelers last year, more than any country in Latin America but Mexico.<\/p>\n
Moody\u2019s Corp. ratings recently upgraded the country to Ba2 from Ba3, citing its tourism receipts, foreign direct investment, remittances, and economic growth of 5% last year.<\/p>\n
Yet some are worried about the country\u2019s future. Public spending per capita has soared from $368 in 2000 to $2,249 last year, the Regional Center for Sustainable Economic Strategies, or CREES, a local think tank, said in a recent report. Interest on public debt now represents about 29% of tax revenue.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure investments like the ones in Pedernales are better uses of tax dollars than fuel subsidies or expanding the government payroll, said CREES Executive Vice President Miguel Collado Di Franco. \u201cCriticism is very muted,\u201d he said of the project. \u201cBut from our point of view, it\u2019s still all part of this public-spending issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Project for whom?<\/strong><\/p>\nOver a 48-hour period this month, Odanis Grull\u00f3n\u2019s beachside establishment, El Navio Bar and Seafood, hosted more than 300 cruise ship passengers bused in from the new port. For a business used to catering to a smattering of backpackers, the opportunity has been overwhelming, he said. It\u2019s also filled him with dread.<\/p>\n
Just behind his bar, a 150-room hotel is going up. He\u2019s been told by the Ministry of Tourism that \u2014 despite the years he invested in getting permits \u2014 his establishment is on the wrong side of a boardwalk that\u2019s part of the master plan. He\u2019ll need to move.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that progress comes with a price,\u201d Grull\u00f3n said, sitting at his bar and looking out over the ocean. \u201cBut many of us locals feel like we\u2019re being excluded from this project, that it\u2019s designed for big foreign interests, that it\u2019s not for us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dominican Republic is gambling it can turn one of its poorest and most remote regions \u2014 home to wild goats, a defunct bauxite mine and little else \u2014 into one of the Caribbean\u2019s hottest tourist destinations. Built from scratch near the Haitian border, the Pedernales-Cabo Rojo tourism project now under construction will include 12,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tezgyan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}