Dominican Tourism

Punta Cana.– JetBlue will begin offering daily nonstop flights, year round, between Punta Cana and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, making golf vacations that much more convenient.

On May 8, the company will begin offering nonstop, Saturday flights between Punta Cana and Boston’s Logan International Airport.

To celebrate the new routes, JetBlue is offering these flights at $99 each way if booked by February 1 for travel between May 8 and June 12.

Punta Cana.– Green Globe, the leading certification program for sustainability in travel and tourism, congratulates the Barceló Punta Cana Resort on achieving certification. Throughout the certification and auditing process, the Barceló Punta Cana Resort made significant investments to ensure that the resort’s infrastructure met the highest environmental standards.

A key focus for the certification was the upgrading of chiller systems and guest room air-conditioning as well as the installation of an ultraviolet purifier in the resort’s water treatment plant. In addition, the resort’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, which were introduced to assist the local community’s school and students, also played an important role.

The new program encourages guests to donate notebooks, pencils and textbooks for the local community. The resort organizes day trips for the local school students, where the educational materials are presented and the resort’s facilities are open for the students and their families to enjoy.

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Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.- Dominican Government and Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) representatives began to implement a sustainable tourism program in Puerto Plata, with the participation of the public and private sectors, to relaunch the country’s North coast as a tourism destination.

This 4 year program, to be set in motion with a US$3 million contribution by Japan’s Government, aims to benefit the zone’s communities through the development of tourist product and services using local resources, said the Economy Ministry in a statement.

“To combine efforts to motor Puerto Plata’s tourism development and confront the reduction of tourists since the mid 90s is the main joint goal which we must all undertake,” said JICA official Tadashi Ikeshiro.

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Santo Domingo.– The Dominican Ministry of Tourism (Sectur) is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life and extensive earthquake damage to neighboring Haiti, tourism authorities said through a press release.

The Dominican government is providing relief effort staging areas at some of the international airports located on the island. The country experienced no damage from the earthquake and all transportation systems, communication systems, tourism businesses and medical facilities are operating smoothly, making the country available to offer support to the relief effort in any way needed.

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Into its 20th year flying to Santo Domingo, Martinair announced it would increase its flights to six a week. Martinair has transported half a million European tourists over the past 10 years, and more than 10 million kilograms of air cargo. Joris Wels, executive vice president of Martinair Holland announced that the airline is strengthened after Air France and KLM aviation group purchased the majority of Martinair shares. (more…)

Punta Cana is included in the Top 50 Most Searched for Destinations from US airports.
In the Caribbean and the Bahamas, the most searched for destinations are Cancun, Mexico (11th), Nassau, Bahamas (30th) San Juan, Puerto Rico (33rd) and Punta Cana (38th). Also listed for the Caribbean are Montego Bay, Jamaica (42nd) and Havana, Cuba (49th).
See http://www.skyscanner.com/news/articles/2010/01/…
The Top 50 listed for 2010 are:

1. London, UK
2. New York City
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. Paris, France
5. Dublin, Ireland
6. Los Angeles, CA
7. Orlando, FL
8. Rome, Italy
9. Madrid, Spain
10. Miami, FL
11. Cancun, Mexico
12. Frankfurt, Germany
13. Honolulu, HI
14. San Francisco, CA
15. Amsterdam, Netherlands
16. San Jose, CA
17. Barcelona, Spain
18. Manchester, UK
19. Sydney, Australia
20. Johannesburg, South Africa
21. Bangkok, Thailand
22. Fort Lauderdale, FL
23. Lima, Peru
24. Buenos Aires, Argentina
25. Chicago, IL (more…)

The Festival Isis, a week of performances by expert belly dancers, daily shows and workshops is booked for Casa de Campo. The event brings some of the leading performers of the oriental art to Plaza Chavon to end with a concert at the amphitheater. The event is set for 15-21 March. The hotel has put together a special package for participants.
See http://www.festivalisis.com