Quote:
Originally Posted by batich
Why is it sad?!
But less tourists - should be welcome.
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The tourists don't 'just benefit' the top 5%. Have you noticed the jobs people have preparing the food for the tourists? Or serving the food? Or cleaning the rooms? And where does the food come from? Less tourists=less demand for food, coffee, beer. So less need for people to produce that food/coffee/beer. Basic supply and demand will result in the price of that food going down, (relative to inflation). So the stuff the farmer NEEDS goes up but he can't sell his produce at the same level. So, he's going to make cut backs on 'non-essentials'... like pens and paper for his kids at school. Or the family that sends the kid to school in the morning and shoe shine in the afternoon suddenly have to send him out morning and afternoon to hawk harder. It's the tourist dollar that *could* save the country. The Dom Rep was 'reclassified' from 'third world' to 'emerging economy'. Those developments are on the back of the tourist dollar. Take those dollars out of the equation and you'll be heading backwards pretty damn quick. Take the kids out of the limited amount of education that they are already getting and you are heading backwards too.
So the tourists go, what replaces them? Farming, coffee and sugar exports I'd guess are running at about their peak as far as bringing money in to the country is concerned, so what else? Drugs look pretty profitable in DR? How about open cast mining etc? That will improve the ecology.
Like it or not, the Dom Reps future lies in the hands of tourists. An improved level of tourist spending, the country goes up for everyone. Reduced numbers AND spending, the country is in trouble for everyone.
The country I live in is a 'tax haven'. When I first moved here there was a lot of opposition to the finance sector that was increasing in size and 'taking over' from traditional economy, such as fishing and farming. The population has almost doubled in the following 15 years. Fishing and farming couldn't hope to replace the finance industry if it pulled out. So even the most die-hard 'anti-finance' have come to accept that even though they dislike it, the countries future lies in a successful finance industry. Schools are great, health is not bad, new hospital etc. You are facing the same. So, you can tilt at windmills all you want. But the sooner you accept that the Dominican Republic's future lies in tourism, the better.
Unless you can actually identify what else the country can do?