Given the downturn within the Dominican economy, tourism development has taken on a greater sense of urgency and therefore greater meaning and purpose on the national development agenda. Within the last few years, the tourism industry has generated significant levels of foreign exchange earnings and has contributed immensely to the socio-economic development of the country. In 1999 for example, tourism contributed EC$130 million to the general economy. The hotel and restaurant sector alone accounted for 3-5 percent of GDP. Without a doubt, the tourism sector is fast becoming the most viable economic sector within the overall economy.
In spite of the aforementioned, one of the major constraints to more aggressive growth with the tourism sector, has been the inability of the country to mount a unified private/public sector sustained marketing program with a view to increasing the visibility of the country particularly in the major tourism source markets. The absence of sufficient funds both from a private and public sector point of view has been Dominica’s biggest limitation. For decades, as a people, we have been speaking of the potential that Dominicans within the Diaspora can bring to bear on the economic and socio-cultural development of Dominica. The real potential of the bond and or relationship that we hold towards the country of our birth or the birthplace of our parents is yet to be fully mobilized. The Government of Dominica and the Dominican people are therefore sounding a call to action. As we continue to grapple with tangible diversification measures to move our present economy away from one that has been solely dependent on a traditional agricultural sector, it is even more critical that Dominicans who work and live within the Diaspora take up an active role to support the current tourism development thrust taking place in Dominica.
The National Development Corporation has long identified the Dominican community as an area of strong opportunity to aid, drive and augment the tourism promotion thrust being undertaken by Government and the private sector. Some of the tangible ways in which the community can assist are as follows:
· Become active promotion officers for the country. If each Dominican living in the Diaspora would take it upon themselves to introduce, promote and sell Dominica to one potential visitor, that would go a long way in helping to promote the destination as well as increase tourist arrival figures into the country;
· Register with either the Consulate or Tourist Offices here in New York so that when the need arises, such agencies can call on a broad and sizeable number of Dominicans to assist with promotional and other activities;
· Become and active member of a Dominican Association or Organization;
· At every opportunity, we as Dominicans must take it upon ourselves to let the world know that Dominica is not the Spanish-speaking country sharing borders with Haiti in the Northern Caribbean. We can start by educating the people that we interact with on a daily basis. If each Dominican undertakes to achieve this objective, we will achieve greater recognition in a shorter space of time;
· Maintain a positive posture of self and country, refraining from negative and destructive comments and criticisms of our nation; and
· Educate and teach the present generation of the positive virtues and values of our people and culture, and to remind the younger generation that they too must be proud to raise the flag, eat the foods, play the music and visit the country either of their birth or their parents birth.
Within the present Marketing Plan for the North American market, the Dominica Tourist Office proposed the following strategy that could act as a catalyst for the Dominican community to assist in boosting tourism traffic to the destination. We proposed the following:
· That the Dominica Hotel and Tourism Association (DHTA) begin the preparation of hotel packages. It was proposed that such packages should include accommodation, taxes, gratuities, government taxes, welcome drink/fruit basket on arrival, airport transfers, and breakfast daily. It was also suggested that the packages be designed to allow for 4,5 and seven night stays.
· That incentives be offered to the potential purchaser of such packages by way of additional nights free of charge, half-day tours, discount coupons for shopping and restaurants etc.
· That the above packages be offered to potential visitors through the Dominican community here in the United States and Canada; and
· That incentive packages ( by way of cash or all expense paid trips) be offered to the Dominican community as an incentive to sell the Destination.
The following was the suggested incentive package that could be offered to the Dominican community:
Roseau Valley
Hotel
Roseau,Dominica
