GabiePeart543
Punta Cana, situated on the east coastline of the Dominican Republic, has grow to be internationally famous as a wonderful tropical holiday paradise with luxurious, eco-stylish, worth-priced, accommodations. In actuality, Punta Cana has now turn out to be the #1 tourist vacation spot in the complete Caribbean -- and this incredible transformation has occurred around just 28 a long time! This information has been noted in several of the well-liked journey magazines and travel internet sites. I want you to know that this stat is based mostly on Authentic information, not just marketing and advertising hoopla. The stats are collected by the Caribbean Tourism Firm, a non-profit which retains close tabs on 29 countries in the Caribbean Area.
Underneath, I will examine this information in far more detail. My discussion will middle all-around the knowledge launched in 2010 as the Caribbean Tourism Business has not however printed the December stats for 2011 so there is not but a complete info established for that yr. Even so, if you research the facts offered for the 1st 11 months of 2011, the overall tendencies remain the identical.
The Dominican Republic received much more non-resident airport arrivals than any other region in the Caribbean, effortlessly beating out Cuba, the second most popular tourist place. The subsequent is a fast reference record for you to view the top rated 10 Caribbean destinations alongside with the total amount reported for non-resident airport arrivals:
1. Dominican Republic - 4,124,5432. Cuba - 2,531,7453. Cancun Mexico - two,106,4854. Jamaica - one,921,678five. Puerto Rico - one,369,814six. The Bahamas - 1,368,0537. Aruba - 825,4518. The US Virgin Islands - 691,1949. Martinique - 476,49210. St. Maartin - 443,136
Now, let us break these stats down even much more into European journey, US American travel, and Canadian journey. Europeans pick the Dominican Republic overwhelmingly as their #one popular Caribbean holiday place. Their next popular is Cuba. The United States has a shut four way race involving Cancun Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Cancun edges out the other three but the Dominican Republic acquired 6.eight% in just one particular yr and this pattern is continuing. Punta Cana is now the #1 place in the Dominican Republic for US Us residents, replacing Puerto Plata on the north coastline, which utilized to be #1. Canadians also look to seriously like the Dominican Republic, specifically Punta Cana, selecting it as their second favored Caribbean holiday spot following Cuba. Be sure to observe that United States citizens are not allowed to travel to Cuba.
So, with this convincing info in brain, permit me inquire:
How did Punta Cana get so popular?
With numerous well-known tourist destinations, it would be tough to pin-position one particular specific factor that manufactured the area soar in popularity. Not so with Punta Cana. On the Punta Cana coastline, which stretches for about 39 miles from Bavaro in the north to Cap Cana in the south, there is one particular simply identifiable event that took spot in 1984 that altered actually every little thing and completely transformed this area into the mega-popular tourist destination it is currently.
Do I have your curiosity piqued still? Retain looking at...
Punta Cana is totally lovely. It gives expansive silky white sandy seashores with a heat sparkling blue sea lapping along its shoreline. It is so inviting it calls you in - some say it even "seduces" you. When you include to that the thick grove of coconut palm trees swaying in the tropical breeze along the complete coast in this area, you have the iconic Caribbean paradise seen on article-cards sent to these back property who weren't lucky sufficient to go on the trip but who will surely wish they had.
However, in advance of 1984 few people actually knew about this tropical gem. It remained mostly undiscovered by most world vacationers until finally the development of the Punta Cana Global Airport (PUJ). In Spanish, the official language of the Dominican Republic, this intercontinental airport is named, "Aeropuerto Internacional de Punta Cana."
You see, no make any difference how magnificent a area is, if you have no handy and moderately priced way to arrive at the location, it won't be noticed by a lot of individuals. Ahead of the Punta Cana Intercontinental Airport was constructed, the very small air strip that had been designed in 1971 could not manage the substantial measurement jet planes. Additionally, in purchase to get there from one more nation, you had to fly into Santa Domingo, the money of the Dominican Republic, and then endure a 4 hour bumpy bus or taxi ride to Punta Cana. The unpaved road was slim and complete of gigantic potholes. The street would also wash out in major rains and motorized autos have been often held up by horse site visitors, creating the speed miserable for weary tourists wanting to get to their hotel.
The air site visitors of the PUJ has grown by leaps and bounds and is on training course this 12 months (2012) to serve a lot more than four million people today! It now receives far far more site visitors than the upcoming busiest airport in the funds of Santo Dominigo. There is no other privately funded airport in the earth that even comes close to this diploma of small business achievement.
Individuals occur to Punta Cana from all in excess of the entire world now. Worldwide airways that serve the Punta Cana Airport are Air Canada, AirTran, American Airways, British Airways, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, KLM, Spirit, United, US Airways, and Westjet. USA 300, recently defunct (as of January thirty, 2012), was established by Apple Holidays and served PUJ for a long time as effectively. Canadian charter airways to the Punta Cana Airport contain Air Transat, Sunwig, Skyservice, and Canjet. They operate throughout the chilly bleak Canadian winters.
So, an region that commenced with quite humble beginnings about 4 many years back, now commonly supplies beds for far more than 70,000 individuals at 1 time. Punta Cana has undoubtedly set up alone as a single of the top spots entire world vacationers consider of heading. And... there is no conclude in sight for the progress of this spot. The approximately 39 mile Punta Cana coastline has in essence been a "gold rush" for the important hotel corporations, particularly the Spanish owned kinds, given that the place was opened up by the intercontinental airport. Stylish superior rise resorts, correctly sited to choose edge of the look at, have sprung up pretty much overnight. The infrastructure has also vastly improved as income for large jobs has poured in.
The Europeans and the Canadians seemed to have "discovered" Punta Cana ahead of the US Us citizens did. However, around the last ten-fifteen many years, the US Us citizens have been speedily catching up. In reality, this has transpired at this kind of a speedy amount, complete resorts have been built to cater specifically to the US Us residents as the customs of the Europeans and the People in america sometimes clash a little bit within the resorts, despite the fact that some US People in america have a preference for the European ambiance.
US Us citizens and Canadians in the Eastern Common Time Zone can depart on a immediate flight in the morning and arrive in Punta Cana by mid-day with no jet lag as the time zones are the very same, besides for the duration of daylight price savings time when it is only a single hour different. Even a excursion from the west coast of the United States or Canada is a fairly easy excursion when you examine it to other similarly unique destinations.
The Punta Cana Airport also matches in properly with the Dominican landscape and can make a good initial impact when travelers enter the place. It has an open-air style and design with a picturesque thatched roof produced of palm fronds. All of the components applied to build the airport had been introduced in from neighborhood sources which include palm, community wooden, and native coral. This was a quite intentional exertion by Frank Rainieri and the other traders in Grupo Punta Cana who privately funded the airport. Given that they ended up underneath-funded for a venture of this magnitude, Frank Rainieri approached a Dominican architecture important at Pratt College. He agreed to do it at no charge to set up a name for himself. He has considering that grow to be very famous and has been compensated very well for other assignments in the Dominican Republic.
At first, Grupo Punta Cana attempted to get the Dominican Republic authorities to fund, or at the very least partially fund, the creating of the worldwide airport but after 8 many years they observed they had to fund it privately completely on their own. They really should be credited for their eyesight and persistence due to the fact a privately funded airport of this magnitude had under no circumstances been built in advance of. They did have the significantly essential approval and cooperation of the Dominican Republic government while or the venture would have never ever gotten off the floor.
So, there you have it. The tourism good results of the Punta Cana coast hinged on one particular point: constructing an intercontinental airport capable of providing tourists easy and affordable access to this stunning paradise. It took unbelievable vision and perseverance.
