Dominican Republic seeks to empower women in the tourism sector

The Ministry of Tourism and the UNWTO signed a cooperation agreement last year for the implementation of the Primer Plano Project

This project provided assistance and support to companies from four UNWTO Member States to achieve the targets of SDG 5 and the Action Plan on women in tourism during the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

It was signed by the Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic, David Collado, and the Secretary General of the UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, on November 18, 2021.

Within the framework of this project, the Ministry of Tourism undertook to carry out a series of activities, such as; implementation of an action plan, training in governance with a gender perspective and support in training activities.

Also, monitoring of the implementation of the action plan, support in the dissemination of project results and awareness of the empowerment of women in tourism.

The strategic objectives taken into consideration for the implementation of the Action Plan were; employment, education and training, leadership, policy and decision making, community and civil society, measurement for better policies and entrepreneurship.

To achieve the objectives, it was determined to articulate job opportunities through institutional participation and network collaboration, strengthen training capacities to integrate the gender approach in national institutions linked to tourism.

As well as diversifying and distributing tourism considering the importance of women’s leadership and decision-making in order to restore the tourism value chain, also exploring together with civil society the link between the recovery of tourism and the approach of genre.

Likewise, produce and present data on employment in the tourism sector disaggregated by sex and delve into the gender dimensions of the sector’s entrepreneurship in order to articulate measures that benefit the recovery of tourism.

To analyze the barriers and opportunities for female tourism workers, a rapid assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on this segment of the population, including the informal sector, was prepared.

Said evaluation was carried out in coordination with the MITUR Intelligence Directorate, with a statistical approach to formal and informal employment disaggregated by sex.

As part of the commitments assumed by MITUR, the workshop “Women Entrepreneurs that Impact Dominican Tourism” was held in Santo Domingo, where 160 women, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, from 18 provinces of the country participated: Puerto Plata, Samaná, La Romana , Espaillat, among others.