Asonahores: tourists consume 90% of local products in hotels

The president of the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic (Asonahores), Rafael Blanco Tejera, reported that the hotel sector is buying about 870 million dollars a year of agricultural products produced in the country.

He said that this means 14% of all national agricultural production, which shows the importance of tourism for the economy.

“Approximately 20 years ago, the tourism sector barely bought 25% of imported products and 75% of national production,” he detailed.

He said that currently 90% of everything that tourists consume in hotel complexes is locally produced.

Therefore, the manager asked to strengthen the national agricultural market and thus be able to increase purchases, and therefore improve the quality of each of the products consumed.

Blanco Tejera spoke in these terms when participating in the launch of the project of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) and the Ministry of Tourism (Mitur): ´Inclusion of women, youth and associations of small farmers to the value chain of the tourism sector.