It is a network that grew without a national registry to know how many are still active, but the Dominican Republic has been using tourism clusters for more than two decades as spaces for collaboration between companies, public institutions, communities and other actors in the destinations
SANTO DOMINGO– In 2026, there is no single public registry that allows one to determine, with a single query, how many of these organizations legally exist, how many maintain current authorization, how many can contract with the State, and how many continue to carry out activities.
The difficulty lies not only in finding names, but in determining what it means for a cluster to exist.
A directory of participants in the Caribbean Tourism Exchange (BTC) for 2024 identifies organizations linked to Jarabacoa, Barahona, Constanza, Montecristi, San José de Ocoa, Pedernales, Puerto Plata, Samaná, La Romana-Bayahibe, Espaillat and Santo Domingo.
That document is a photograph of participants in an event, not a national legal registry, and therefore does not allow us to conclude that those are the only existing organizations or that all of them will continue to be active in 2026.
Five records for the same organization
The first finding of this survey is that there is no single indicator capable of answering whether a cluster is legally constituted and operationally active.
Law 122-05 establishes the procedure for incorporating a non-profit association and among the required documents are the minutes of the constitutive assembly, the statutes, the list of members, the mission and objectives, the geographical area of work, the address and the certification that authorizes the use of the name.
This allows us to determine the existence of a legal entity, but not necessarily its current activity.
Publications from the National Office of Intellectual Property –ONAPI– allow tracking of trade names and brands linked to organizations that use the term cluster.
The public activity of the Santo Domingo Tourism Cluster, documented in the press since at least 2018, when a new board of directors headed by Jaime Castillo Jorge took over, is consistent with an organization established during that period or earlier.
A registered name or an active directive does not, in itself, constitute proof of institutional activity in 2026.
The National Center for the Promotion and Development of Non-Profit Associations introduces another layer through the National Registry of Authorization and the mechanisms established for organizations that participate in programs financed with public resources.
The General Directorate of Public Procurement adds a fourth. Under the new regime of Law 47-25, enacted on July 28, 2025 and in force since January 28, 2026, non-profit associations constituted under Law 122-05 can register as suppliers to the State, subject to the legal and administrative conditions established by that regulation.
The fifth layer is in the budget. In 2025, the General Directorate of Budget (DIGEPRES) identified, among the beneficiaries of transfers from the Ministry of Tourism, the La Romana Bayahibe Tourism Cluster, Inc., with RNC 430082491, and the Espaillat Province Ecotourism Cluster and Related Activities, Inc., with RNC 430233552.
The Puerto Plata Destination Tourism Cluster, Inc., with RNC 430101232, was not included in that 2025 list, but it is recommended for 2026, with RD$12 million, in the preliminary budget of ASFL prepared by the CASFL in September 2025.
Combining these data allows us to formulate a much more precise question than "How many clusters are there?": How many organizations simultaneously have legal existence, registered identity, authorization where applicable, capacity to interact with the State, and verifiable activity? And that will be the criterion used for the final map.
La Romana-Bayahibe: with verifiable activity
The La Romana-Bayahibe Tourism Cluster traces its origins to the association of hotels in the destination, created in 2000, and to the process of articulation with other actors in the tourism value chain that was already documented in 2004.
The formally established organization, according to an institutional presentation by the La Romana-Bayahíbe Hotel Association (AHRB) itself, released in 2023, dates back to 2009.
The organization maintains verifiable activity in 2026 and in September 2025, the Ministry of Tourism, the La Romana-Bayahibe Hotel Association and the La Romana-Bayahibe Tourism Cluster, with technical support from Open Doors Organization and Travegali, declared La Romana-Bayahibe as the first accessible and inclusive tourist destination in the country.
Its existence also appears in the 2025 budget documentation, with RNC 430082491 and a recorded transfer of RD$1.5 million.
In this case, therefore, several independent pieces of evidence converge: identifiable organization, recent public activity, and budgetary record.
Samaná: registration, institutional memory and environmental co-management
The Samaná Tourism Cluster (CTS) operates under the regime of Law 122-05 and has renewed its board of directors in recent years: in September 2024, the CTS assembly elected Javier Lara as president for the period 2024-2026.
The case of Samaná also demonstrates that a cluster can become a key partner in managing a public attraction. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, through its Vice Ministry of Protected Areas and Biodiversity, selected the Samaná Tourism Cluster as the coordinating entity for the Salto del Limón Co-management Council. This process involved more than 25 community and institutional organizations, and the ministry plans to invest RD$11 million to improve visitor infrastructure.
The cluster, represented by Jesús Durán Haro, also signed the co-management agreement of the Salto del Limón Natural Monument together with the Community Association of Ecotourism of the Salto del Limón Waterfall (Acesal) and the Center for Conservation and Ecodevelopment of the Samaná Bay (Cebse).
The existence of this function does not mean that the cluster owns the resource or that it automatically manages the public funds allocated to the attraction.
Puerto Plata: a long-standing structure
The Puerto Plata Destination Tourism Cluster indicates that it has been operating since 2003 as a consortium of institutions and companies formed through an agreement between public and private actors.
The organization appears in the ASFL draft budget for 2026 with RNC 430101232 and a recommendation for a transfer of RD$12 million from the Ministry of Tourism, the highest among the organizations that have "cluster" in their name.
Recent activity demonstrates that this is not merely a historical designation. The cluster maintains a board of directors, chaired by Birgitt Heinsen of Ocean World, and throughout 2026 has participated in initiatives related to accessible tourism and destination promotion.
Santo Domingo: the brand and the organization
The Santo Domingo Tourism Cluster has documented institutional activity in the press since at least 2018, when a board headed by Jaime Castillo Jorge took over; it was succeeded by boards headed by Mónika Infante Henríquez (2018-2020) and, more recently, by Juan Manuel Martín de Oliva for the period 2025-2027.
The organization continues to have institutional activity: in June 2026, the Ministry of Tourism and the cluster started the summer edition of Turizoneando, with activities until the end of August and more than 100 proposals in the Colonial City.
This allows us to separate two concepts that often appear together in public communications: the organization that represents the destination and the programs that a state institution runs in partnership with it.
Cases that require further investigation
Jarabacoa, Constanza, Barahona, Montecristi and San José de Ocoa appear in the BTC directory of 2024 and there is also documentary evidence of other clusters or tourism structures identified in previous competitiveness programs, including Monte Plata, Santiago and Dajabón, and of organizations active outside of that directory, such as the Barahona Tourism and Productive Cluster.
Santiago, unlike those cases with less documentation, does have a verifiable date and scale. The Santiago Tourist Destination Cluster was launched on November 8, 2013, through an expanded institutional assembly, with the participation of representatives from more than 55 local and provincial organizations linked to the tourism value chain.
The organization relied on the experience accumulated by 17 editions of the Expoturismo de Santiago fair and on the Official Development Agenda of the city, formalized through Municipal Ordinance No. 2945.
The historical existence of an organization will not be used as proof of current activity, so not all squares on this map necessarily have the word "active".
Pedernales and Miches, two destinations that in 2026 concentrate a good part of the public conversation about new tourist centers, show a different pattern than Santiago: the available evidence suggests that the cluster model is not, for now, the institutional way that channels their development.
The Pedernales Tourism Cluster exists in the historical record: a press release from May 2015 identifies Katia Vilomar as its president and documents its institutional position on tourism in the province.
But that organization is not mentioned in any of the news about the current development of Cabo Rojo, which in practice is proceeding along another path: the Pro-Pedernales Trust, created by Decree 724-20 in December 2020, and, since January 2026, the Cabo Rojo Consortium, a private alliance led by the Puntacana Group together with AFI Reservas and AFI Popular, which, at the International Tourism Fair in Madrid, assumed the direction and management of the project from the State.
None of the sources consulted about that consortium, nor about the Trust, mention the province's tourism cluster.
Miches, for its part, does not have a documented tourism cluster; the organization that brings together the business owners of the destination is ProMiches, the Association of Hotels and Tourism of El Seibo and Miches.
In 2023, President Yamil Isaías stated that creating a cluster to bring together the destination's transporters was still a pending task for the association that year, and no subsequent information was found to confirm that this cluster was ever formed.
This report could not verify with a primary source the governing bodies, membership figures or exact registration dates of Boca Chica, Montecristi, Constanza, Barahona or San José de Ocoa and it could not be confirmed whether the Pedernales Tourism Cluster of 2015 is still active under another board, nor whether ProMiches finally managed to constitute the cluster that it had pending in 2023.
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