About 3,000 tourists estimate that the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores) is no longer entering the country from the UK, after the government canceled flights from that destination since December 22 last year due to the detection of a new tribe from Covid-19.
Asonahores Executive Vice President Andrés Marranzini said the suspension of the airline’s three weekly flights, although he said it is early to evaluate the impact of this measure, could affect about 3,000 passengers.
However, he specified that this measure to suspend flights, despite the fact that fewer tourists are arriving from that destination, sends a positive signal to visitors from other countries regarding the security that the Dominican Republic offers to those who decide to go on vacation. go into their own. country.
“We are going to focus on the fact that this decision was made because it had to be made, a right decision, not because of what we lost, we won because the others traveling to the Dominican Republic feel the security that (the country) does not receive tourists. for receiving tourists, but has security criteria, ”he said.
Given the situation created in the UK by the new strain of the coronavirus, public health and tourism authorities have asked the Civil Aviation Board (JAC) to suspend flights from that country as a preventive measure, which was approved and implemented. in effect since December 22.
Marranzini stressed that the country cannot currently focus on what it loses, but on what it gains when it takes responsible steps to send the message to tourists from other countries that the Dominican Republic is a safe destination. He added that a large number of flights from America and from Dominicans living abroad continue to arrive.
Quarantined passengers
All passengers who have been to the UK in the past two weeks will be subject to mandatory quarantine upon arrival in the Dominican Republic as part of the new preventive measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 contamination in the country.
The measure will be applied to travelers via airports managed by Dominican Airports XXI (Aerodom), explains Luis López Mena, corporate director of communication of that consortium.
“What has now been established is that all people who have been to the UK in the past two weeks will be subject to mandatory quarantine upon arrival in the country as a preventive health measure against Covid-19,” he said.
They are also not from Italy
According to data from the Dominican Association of Tour Operators (Adotur), the country also does not receive tourists from England and Italy. “We get a weekly charter flight from Spain, France and Germany. We receive commercial flights every day, ”said Adotur President Jacinto Fernández. Adotur brings together 105 travel agency companies.
According to the flight schedule from 28 of this month to 3 January 2021, of the Corporación Aeroportuaria del Este, SA, the flight A320, from London, England, registered by Frontier Airlines, was registered on Monday 28 on route ORD-PUJ-ORD. (Chicago / Punta Cana).
In addition, there are flights from the United States and Canada and Spain, countries where the new variant of the corona virus is circulating.
KNOWING MORE
2019
At the start of the pandemic, Salud Pública established two centers at Las Américas airport, where travelers were sent to quarantine.
One of the Public Health Authorized Centers operated at the Boca Chica Naval Base and another at the Customs Club, on Las Américas Avenue.