Julio Almonte asks Mitur to rescue Puerto Plata's historic center

Former deputy tourism minister Julio Almonte has asked the Mitur to keep and step up its support for Puerto Plata so the historic center and the boardwalk can be modernized. The request, reported by Arecoa, comes with a to-do list: restore the Victorian houses, fix drainage and sanitation, remove bad smells, reorganize parts of the urban surroundings, boost night lighting and install surveillance cameras monitored 24 hours a day. Almonte argues that current conditions in both areas do not match what the destination needs and that the bill cannot fall on the municipality alone.

The most telling item is security and opening hours. With cameras and lighting, visitors can walk the center and the boardwalk after cruise passengers leave, and that is the difference between a four-hour excursion stop and a destination where people sleep over. Puerto Plata has been on the industry radar for months: in October there was talk of 32 cruise calls and the opening of the Rainieri Cultural Center in Puerto Plata, and Mitur has pushed the destination at fairs such as TTG in Rimini. Almonte's complaint points to the missing link: the urban product that receives those passengers.

For local hoteliers the message is direct. Every cruise passenger who stays an extra night, every excursionist who stretches the walk along the boardwalk, turns into occupied rooms, restaurant spending and purchases in historic-center shops. The fiscal impact matters too: a rehabilitated historic center raises land values, draws private investment in boutique lodging and dining, and widens the revenue base for the municipality and for the industry itself. Almonte's comparison with Santo Domingo's Colonial City is not rhetoric, it is a debate about where public promotion and rehabilitation money goes.

The reading is clear: Puerto Plata has the flow, it has air and sea connectivity, and it has architectural heritage few Caribbean destinations can match. What is missing is closing the gap between visitor volume and the quality of the public space that receives them. With a plan for sanitation, lighting and surveillance, the destination gains the ability to retain spending and to sell a night-time experience that is currently lost.

Two things are worth watching: whether Mitur includes these works in its infrastructure program, and how it coordinates with the city council to deliver drainage and security without slowing tourism activity. The window is good, and the private sector can back it with investment in facades and storefronts once it sees public commitment.