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Dominican Republic must boost human capital, digital, and sustainability to keep tourism lead, ex-minister warns
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic /Environment & Climate

Dominican Republic must boost human capital, digital, and sustainability to keep tourism lead, ex-minister warns

From Diario Libre · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Official statement Context piece
  • The Dominican Republic must focus on improving its human capital, digital transformation, internal mobility, and sustainability to maintain its leading position in regional tourism.
  • Tourism has evolved into an ecosystem impacting nearly all productive sectors, contributing over $21 billion to the Dominican GDP in 2025 and creating over 882,000 jobs.
  • Future success hinges on addressing structural challenges like staff training, AI integration, inter-regional transport, environmental sustainability, and fair competition from short-term rentals.

Enrique de Marchena, former president of the National Hotel and Restaurant Association (Asonahores), urged the Dominican Republic to prioritize key areas to sustain its tourism leadership. He emphasized the need to enhance human capital quality, accelerate digital transformation, strengthen internal mobility, and adopt more sustainable practices.

Speaking at a conference at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (Unphu), De Marchena highlighted tourism's evolution from a mere economic activity to a comprehensive ecosystem influencing most of the country's productive sectors. He cited World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) data showing tourism contributed over $21 billion to the Dominican GDP in 2025, representing 16.6% of the national economy and generating more than 882,000 jobs. This growth, he noted, is a result of public-private alliances, institutional stability, and expanded air connectivity.

The Dominican Republic must concentrate on raising the quality of its human capital, accelerating digital transformation, strengthening internal mobility, and moving towards a more sustainable model if it wants to preserve the tourism leadership achieved in the region.

— Enrique de MarchenaDuring a conference at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña (Unphu), the former president of Asonahores outlined key strategies for maintaining the country's tourism leadership.

Despite past successes, De Marchena cautioned that future growth depends on tackling significant structural challenges. These include improving technical staff training, integrating artificial intelligence and digital tools, enhancing transportation between tourist hubs, ensuring environmental sustainability, and regulating short-term rental platforms to ensure fair competition and quality standards. He stressed that tourism's success should be measured not just by visitor numbers or revenue, but by its ability to benefit more communities and preserve the resources vital to the industry.

"Dominican tourism is, before any figure, a story of people," De Marchena stated, underscoring the human element behind the economic success.

Dominican tourism is, before any figure, a story of people.

— Enrique de MarchenaDe Marchena emphasized the human element in the tourism industry's success, stating that growth should benefit communities and preserve resources.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Diario Libre in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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