Asonahores: Dominican tourism should be measured by its economic impact

The Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores) has hit the nail on the head: the country's tourism should not be valued only by visitor numbers, but by its capacity to transform the real economy. They said it while reviewing a 2025 that, according to Arecoa, consolidated the industry as an income engine for the state.

Here I see a necessary shift. For years we celebrated arrival records, but the uncomfortable question is whether that tourist wave translates into better wages, more formal jobs, and foreign currency that stays in the provinces. Asonahores is not asking to stop marketing, they ask to raise the bar: every new hotel project in Punta Cana or Samaná must prove how it energizes its surroundings.

• Fiscal impact: more occupied rooms, more taxes collected without raising rates.
• Local spillover: purchases from local producers, hiring, and services that strengthen local commerce.
• Sustainability: growth only counts if it does not compromise the destination.

The useful takeaway is opportunity. If the sector can measure those benefits, hotel investment will have stronger arguments with government and banks, and tourism will stop being a slogan and become the backbone of the DR economy. That is the path, and to echo Asonahores, what matters now is to prove it with data.