Director of Tourism, Colin Piper, has said that despite the fact that 2018 was a challenging year, Dominica’s tourism industry surpassed its expectations and received international recognition in various areas.
He spoke at a Digital Marketing, Travel & Distribution Systems Seminar on January 17th, 2019, at which he provided an update on the tourism industry.
Piper said that all tourists’ sites are now opened since the passage of Hurricane Maria.
“We monitored about 23 major sites and attractions pre-Maria. I guess all of them were impacted and now we are indicating all 23 of them are open. We are just waiting on forestry to officially give us the word on Champagne and Boiling Lake but as you know, those two sites are being utilized. So, we’re essentially at 100% in terms of sites an attractions,” Piper explained.
The Tourism Director said that they were able to salvage a cruise season in the beginning of January 2018 through one-on-one visits and by attending trade shows where they could engage cruise executives.
“From a cuisine perspective, we introduced the Taste of Dominica and this is an event we hope to continue into the future essentially creating an event around food and cuisine and believe it or not, a lot of people travel for food and cuisine,” he added.
He said in terms of hiking, it was a case of committing finances to resuscitate segments of the Waitukubuli National Trail and also on some sites and attractions in order to improve the guest experience.
Piper indicated that revealed that a destination assessment was done in terms of health and wellness to understand what we have on island that can be considered in the health and wellness space and training was done in terms of tourism service to provide in keeping with our man made we certainly have had a series of training’s where we focus on different sub-sectors and we will continue in 2019.
He said that in spite of challenges faced after Hurricane Maria, Dominica was acknowledged in various lists in the world and the country’s main and upcoming hotels were also recognized.
“Secret bay was named “best resort” in the Caribbean and also one of the 10 Caribbean priorities that made the list of ‘100 most incredible hotels in the world’. Thus far for 2019 three of Dominica’s upcoming hotels have made the Forbes hotel list of the top ten most anticipated new Caribbean hotels in 2019 (Jungle bay, Anichi and Kempinski).”
Piper mentioned that strategic initiatives will be implemented to rebuild the tourism industry in Dominica to include a 15-million-dollar loan facility at the AID Bank post-Hurricane Maria to provide support to the private sector.
The DDA executive said that in order to make Dominica a more desirable vacation destination in 2019, we need to make incremental improvements in marketing and promotion, integrity of customer service to the guests and access to Dominica.
“And if we can improve on these, then were going to be in a better position thought-out the year than we are currently,” Piper declared.
Sir
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of which the ceremony is on the 1st of October
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Man look at the condition of our ferry terminal and airport facility. It is a total disgrace. These are the 1st point of contact from visitors! I sometimes wonder if these tourism officials and DLP Gov’t officials travel and see/observe/take note of other countries, islands port of entry, because what we have is a mess.
blablablablabla !!! come mr Piper, give us some numbers, if you can or if you are not feeling ashame about it !
2019 is good ??? it havent starting yet !
compare 2005 to 2015 like this we will see what did you achieve !!
When you have very low expectations, anything will surpass it. 4 percent hotel occupancy and over five hundred apartments empty in picard, exceeds your expectation? SHAMEFUL.
Dominica is naturally more picturesque than all her neighboring islands. It should be a tourist magnet. St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Kitts are punching far beyond their weight getting more than their fair market share of tourists. Why give the country a report on the performance of the local tourism industry with no figures/statistics to bolster the flattering claims? Not one piece of mathematical calculation to give credence to Mr. Piper’s report, consequently, deeming it worthless. Mr. Piper, like other political appointees in prominent positions in the civil service, are just like soiled diapers, useless.
Beautiful sites in Dominica. So daytime is fun but the evenings are very boring. There is not much to do. Hardly any bars and restaurants are open. Just one or2 hotels. There is nothing happening on a Saturday
Is the hedline misleading or what? 2019 is only about 22 days old.
Listening to this man one might be excused for thinking that DA has at least one 777 and one A350 touching down every day at the new imaginary Roosevelt Skerrit International Airport which is climate resistent because it was built from disused 40ft. containers. Piper is drawing a big salary as does Tonge for doing absolutely nothing for the tourist sector but on and of some propaganda for a useless government. Only in Dominica!!
Piper, you look like an intelligent man. What expectation did Dominica surpass? Little Antigua and St Kitts both hit the million cruise passenger. Stay over visitors in the said two islands are six times more than Dominica’s. Are your expectations that we should remain in the pre Columbus days? Dont you think that we need to catch up with the other island? Are you comparing Dominica with Bat Island which doesn’t exist? Stop settling for nothing. Stop making Dominica the Caribbean laughing stock. Do the labor goons in power travel and see what the other Caribbean islands boast of? Do they see the level of infrastructure in the other island have? Or do they just remain in the hotel rooms and eat and fatten themselves at Dominica’s expense? Time to send them.packing.
What happened to that promised direct flight from Florida, that the tourism minister promised was not an election gimmick?
Well well well!!!
If tourism surpasses your expectations, best we use the tagline “Dominica, the dead destination “
Where are the numbers to back up the statement in the headlines?
No numbers to be had with this administration and it’s departments. Just meaningless speeches to make the people believe everything is well in Dominica, in fact it never has been better. Dominica is the land of illusions!
I must agree. It is evident, we have seen a boot that this year’s (2018) Tourism sector. This we even saw during the independence season and the influx of persons. I am praying that we can surpass this the following season and we keep up the same vigor. Great Job Mr. Tonge in your capacity.
What are the statistics on tourism arrivals compare 2016 with 2018 and lets see what the figures show. I am not comparing 2017 because of maria
He can’t tell you that. The only thing hing he can is blah, blah, blah… and for that they get a massive salary.