FEDA promotes agritourism to breathe new life into the destination

Dominican tourism is starting to smell like the countryside. I'm not the one saying it, FEDA is, and they've set their sights on agritourism as a way to stop depending only on sun and beach. The FEDA bet aims to do two things: make rural communities benefit from tourism and give our agricultural products more international presence. Keep in mind, this is not about planting a vegetable patch and charging admission.

In my opinion, this is one of the most sensible ideas I've seen come from the public sector in a long time. Why? Because it turns visitors into brand ambassadors: someone who walks through a coffee plantation in Jarabacoa or a cacao farm in San Francisco will take that coffee home and ask for it in their own country. That's a country branding strategy in its purest form.

The best part is that it doesn't take anything away from Punta Cana or Bávaro, which remain the engine of the industry. But a mature destination can't live off a single picture. This opens the door for tourists to stay two extra days and discover another Dominican Republic. And that extra spending stays in the communities, not in the hotel chain. In my book, that's a win-win.