Air Dominicana will get US$300 million investment

LONDON. The Minister of Tourism, Francisco Javier Garcia, announced that a group of Spanish investors will travel in two weeks to the country to present a formal proposal to the government with the idea of providing capital to the national airline Air Dominicana, an operation that they feel would require a US$300 million investment.

He said that "these investors are going to completely transform what was the original concept of Air Dominicana which was a company that was created with a starting capital of US $10 million".

He also reported that as part of the negotiations carried out during the World Travel Market, an agreement was made with Virgin Atlantic, through their tour operator company, Virgin Holiday, to open two flights a week between London and Puerto Plata. The flights will begin to operate starting in the winter of 2010 according to the five-year deal which is part of the re-launching of Puerto Plata as a tourist destination.

Likewise Garcia reported that with a US$5.0 billion investment, English investors will develop a tourist project in Pedernales, Dominican Republic. The project will include the construction of a new airport.

He said that the project in Pedernales will be a tourist city that will also involve the provinces of Bahorouco and Barahona, and will be build on a 70,000,000 square meter portion of land ( 7,000 hectares). The project to be built will include hotels, villas and an employee living area.

"We had meeting with them and we said that only if the concept of the project and if they have sure financing for the project, but we could see that they are businesses tied to financial institutions that have assured the complete financing of the project", he said.