| Dominican hoteliers help local community |
| Domican-Today |
| 3/24/2007 |
Source: The Dominican Today
Punta Cana.- Ten or fifteen years ago, there were barely 20 houses along the road leading to the Punta Cana International airport. Today the community of Veron consists of several neighborhoods, and well over 200 households. It has grown up in response to the tourism boom on the Dominican Republic's east coast, and is a little town in its own right with shops, restaurants and other small businesses. Veron is made up of migrants from other parts of the Dominican Republic, who have moved to the area in the hope of getting work at one of the many popular resorts along the coast. These people are from the poorer parts of the country and so tend to be unskilled, so they end up working in the lower-end tourism jobs, while specialized employees with management, languages and other professional and technical skills usually come from elsewhere in the country, mainly the large cities.Things are likely to be different for the next generation. The town of Veron now has a technical high school, the Politecnico Ann and Ted Kheel, built by the Punta Cana Foundation and jointly funded and run by the state education authorities, the Catholic Church and the Foundation itself. Students are taught the standard academic curriculum as well as technical and professional skills that are likely to help them get employment in the tourist industry ? a win-win situation for the hotel sector and the local community.The Punta Cana Foundation, set up by the Punta Cana Group which owns and runs the Punta Cana Resort and Club just down the road from Veron, has also built sports facilities in the town, as well as supporting the public health clinic in the town, which has been rehabilitated and stocked with the help of the foundation. It is staffed by a Dominican doctor, administered by the local community and has the additional resource of medical students from the U.S. who come down to do work experience at the clinic.The Punta Cana Ecological Foundation is already well known for its work aimed at protecting the local environment through a range of ecological projects on dry land and in the sea. Their recipe for sustainable tourism involves ensuring that the local community is not left behind in the process of developing the area, as well as protecting the environment. |
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