Vice President Grupo Puntacana highlights women’s participation in tourism

In the last five years, 217 thousand 698 participants have graduated from the National Institute of Professional Technical Training (INFOTEP), of which 155 thousand 49 are women, equivalent to 71%, according to reports at the conference on the importance of women’s work in the development of the tourism industry, dictated by Paola Rainieri de Diaz, vice president of Grupo Puntacana.

Rainieri Kuret spoke about the role of women in the significant achievements that the sector has reached and stressed that The Dominican economy greatly benefits from the tourism ecosystem, which provides more than 800,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.

“Tourism is an important gateway to the labor market for women in our country,” said the executive, who highlighted the role that this industry plays in the empowerment of women.

Regarding the levels of development that women have reached, the general director of INFOTEP, Rafael Santos Badía, said that this institution has been, in an appreciable part, the protagonist in these stellar changes in which Dominican women are qualified and advance at the same time. in his tireless task of educating and training the population.

Santos Badía expressed that tourism is a dynamic sector, which has fully recovered after the pandemic, “so it is necessary to provide quality technicians to strengthen the tourism pole of the Dominican Republic, through the services offered ”.

He pointed out that, in general, in the last five years, almost two million female participants have been trained in more than 1,136 different training action programs, which represents 56% compared to men.

“In the hotel and tourism areas of the Dominican Republic, considered among the most fruitful and with the highest relative growth in the world, we must grant our women a definitive and meritorious step to the success that we have achieved as a country, in the hospitality industry” , reviewed the director of INFOTEP.

The conference

Paola Rainieri Kuret, also responsible for Marketing at Grupo Puntacana, highlighted that in the world women are the majority in the tourism workforce. He said that, according to the latest global report on women in tourism, 54% of the people who work in the sector belong to the female gender and instead, women occupy only 39% of the positions in the economy as a whole.

He pointed out that in tourism, women have a lower salary gap, compared to other sectors. They earn 14.7% less than men globally.

“Women are present in all areas of tourism and increase its added value. It also has a significant presence in hotel and tourism faculties and schools”, highlighted the speaker at the conference Importance of Women’s Work in the Development of the Tourism and Hotel Industry.

He argued that, globally, women represent between 15% and 17% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and contribute 25% of foreign exchange, exceeding seven billion dollars annually.

The speaker assured that tourism offers better opportunities than other activities for the participation of women in the labor force, business initiatives and leadership.

She pointed out that the tradition of female presence in the management of Grupo Puntacana has led to having the gender perspective incorporated into its DNA. In this sense, he cited that, at the executive level, 40% are women, at the administrative level, 70% and 15% at the operational level.

Among the challenges for the development of women in the country, she cited those of reducing the salary gap, more promotion of women to positions of greater responsibility, conciliation between personal, work and family life and promoting female entrepreneurship.