PUNTA CANA.– Tourism Minister David Collado and UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili signed a declaration of intent yesterday with the aim of reaching a resolution within the next 90 days that will dictate short, medium and long-term measures.
One of the first measures the resolution will include is a plan to gradually eliminate plastic throughout the hotel sector's value chain. The UNWTO Secretary-General indicated that the Dominican Republic would be among the first countries to implement this initiative within its tourism sector.
Reducing plastics, transforming sargassum, encouraging community tourism, and organizing destination management are some of the challenges that the Dominican Republic must overcome to make its industry environmentally friendly and resilient to climate change.
The challenges were addressed yesterday within the framework of the International Forum on Sustainable Tourism in the Dominican Republic.
The event, which took place on the eve of the eighteenth Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) - to be held today in Punta Cana - considered the steps that the sector needs to take to develop a public-private strategy that responds to these pending tasks.
"We are fully committed to the Dominican Republic taking the step towards sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism," Collado declared during the event
He considered that this action would be a demonstration of "tangible results" towards the Sustainable Development Goals, an initiative that the entire Caribbean is expected to join.
During the panel "Present and future challenges and benefits of sustainable development", Luz Lantigua, Sustainability Manager of the Iberostar Group, explained the case of this hotel chain, which in 2020 managed to eradicate the use of single-use plastics and replace them with reusable materials, as an example that it can be a replicable method for other centers and, in addition, promotes environmental awareness among tourists.
The activity, which took place for most of the day in one of the halls of the Meliá Caribe hotel, located in the tourist area of the East of the country, also had the participation of experts, as well as other actors of the tourism industry of the country and abroad.
“Today, we are gathered in this international forum with the paramount interest of promoting a more environmentally friendly and sustainable tourism that, in turn, allows us to continue generating quality jobs,” said Minister Collado.
The agreement to promote sustainable tourism was signed not only by Collado and Pololikashvili, but also by the president of ASONAHORES, David Libre, Elizabeth Tovar, representative of the Third Sector of Tourism; Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of the Meliá group and Jaime Morillo, representative of Community Tourism.
The UNWTO Secretary-General highlighted the importance of the agreement, historically signed in the Dominican Republic, and said it is a major step towards strengthening sustainable tourism.
