He said there have been numerous scams where people have arrived at properties only to find they weren't rented anything. "This has happened here and there; in fact, it's gotten to the point where, due to a lack of regulation, the platforms themselves have decided to prohibit parties in rentals because they recognize that the situation was out of control."
SANTO DOMINGO.-“I believe there is a lack of information regarding this. For us, the most important thing is regulation, because at the end of the day, if a person stays in a property rented through a technological platform, and anything happens to them, it happens in the Dominican Republic.”
This was the response of Andrés Marranzini, vice president of the Dominican Republic's Hotel and Tourism Association (Asonahores), when commenting on the situation regarding the application of taxes to digital platforms, scheduled for next August, as announced by the Dominican Government.
Marranzini clarified that this group is only demanding that the rental of houses and apartments through the Airbnb digital platform be regulated in order to protect the country as a tourist destination.
“Whether they stay in a hotel or not, the destination is one thing; what worries us is that the destination is suffering from events that have been occurring in the absence of regulation.”.
He said that "in 400 cities around the world this is regulated, that it has to be registered and have minimum conditions so that a rental property can be offered through a market," he insisted.
He argued that when the property is rented, there are minimal records that guarantee that in case of any eventuality there is a responsible party, it is known who stayed, it is known how many stayed, what is known with a hotel, we are not asking for anything sinful,” he pointed out.
Marranzini explained that when a property is rented, whether one is the owner or manager of the asset—because now one can register a property in the Dominican Republic on any of those platforms without necessarily being the owner, or register a document that proves the usufruct of that activity in order to rent it—there have been many scams of people who have arrived at properties and were not rented anything.
“This has happened here and there; moreover, it has reached the point that, due to a lack of regulation, the platforms themselves have decided to prohibit parties in rentals because they recognize that there was a situation that was out of control,” he stressed.
He asserts that the euro's collapse has not affected the arrival of European tourists
The vice president of Asonahores assured that the collapse of the euro against the US dollar has not had a negative impact on the arrival of tourists from the European continent.
Marranzini argued that the normal consequence is a decrease when the euro loses ground, but the arrival of Europeans to the Dominican Republic has not decreased.
Interviewed on the program D'AGENDA, which airs every Sunday on Telesistema Canal 11 and TV Quisqueya for the United States, he said that they have been monitoring the movement of the dollar-euro exchange rate, and previously it used to happen that when the euro lost value against the American currency, European tourism would decline, but this time that has not been the case.
“Incredibly, not at the moment, and I say incredibly because in previous years it was a metric that we tracked, because the normal consequence is a decrease, but people are still traveling despite that, and obviously our overall strategy, which is another metric that we also track, is the cost of airfare, which we are seeing as a barrier to continuing our growth,” Marranzini explained.
Regarding this last point, the business leader of the tourism industry added that they are trying to stimulate new routes and new airlines, participating in and seeking to encourage competition so that prices adjust.
“But it’s a complex case due to the rising price of oil, operating costs, and staff shortages. It’s a very complex issue, and that’s the challenge for the industry’s growth. The challenge lies in air connectivity, regardless of the fact that we continue working on incorporating new products and improving the product we are offering to the world from the Dominican Republic,” he explained.
Andrés Marranzini reported that the arrival of tourists from Europe represents 30 percent of the total number of foreign visitors who come to the country each year, and recalled that at one point it represented 45%.
“I think it should be a little lower than that, because of the level in South America which has risen in recent months, but it should be around 30 to 40 percent, I don't think it will exceed that percentage, because the United States is well above 50%,” he explained.
He stated that the arrival of tourists from Europe is around one million, when travelers from Italy, France, Germany and Spain are counted; obviously in some cases more or less are received, but never less than 650,000, and it is estimated that it will exceed one million this year.
Marranzini confirmed that the "golden goose" of Dominican tourism is the United States, and there are many reasons for this. The first is the proximity, the connection from a cultural point of view, the country's ability to connect with the type of food they seek, the service they demand, and the Dominican connects very well with the American tourist; they feel very comfortable, there are many facilities and there are no great cultural disparities.
“So there are many elements, but the main one is proximity. At the end of the day, from the East Coast we have flights from one hour 40 minutes to four and a half hours, and along that entire coastline there must be 100 million potential North American visitors, and that continues to be our goal, and we are doing very well, better than everyone else in the Caribbean,” he explained.
