In the 20-plus years I have been writing about the meeting industry, I'm certain that I have been to the Dominican Republic at least 10 times. To be sure, it is not hyperbole to call this Caribbean island nation a “tropical paradise” in every sense that label connotes.
Punta Cana, a beachfront resort town on the eastern tip of the island, is a great destination for incentive groups because there are so many beachfront, all-inclusive resorts.
But what I have lamented about my trips to the DR (as the island nation is popularly called) was that only one of those trips took me to the capital of Santo Domingo, a charming city that also happens to be the oldest continually inhabited European settlement in the Western Hemisphere. If you recall your history classes, the city was founded by Bartholomew Columbus in 1498—six years after his brother Christopher is credited with discovering the New World.
The city is now experiencing a boom in meeting and conference business, thanks in part to a much more recent discovery by groups of leisure travelers who, like me, liked Punta Cana but wanted to see more of the DR and ventured westward to see what this 521-year-old city had to offer.
Santo Domingo has everything, starting with great historic venues. The Zona Colonial (Colonial District) is replete with centuries-old cathedrals and mansions, plus a huge array of classic restaurants, nightclubs, museums and galleries that have developed over the past half-millennium. For generations, if travelers wanted to experience the culture of this nation, the first place to go has been Santo Domingo’s historic quarter.
The other dynamic that has spurred a rise in meetings, conferences and trade shows is very much a 21st-century occurrence—the acquisition of Starwood Lodging by Marriott. Marriott already had a strong, upscale footprint in Santo Domingo with the oceanfront Renaissance Santo Domingo Jaragua Hotel and Casino, with 300 guest rooms and 45,236 square feet of meeting space; the JW Marriott Santo Domingo, with 150 guest rooms and 7,309 square feet of meeting space; and a Courtyard by Marriott, with 145 guest rooms and 1,515 square feet of meeting space.
As Marriott Santo Domingo’s good fortune would have it, the Starwood acquisition brought the Sheraton Santo Domingo, with 245 guest rooms and 1,807 square feet of meeting space—an oceanfront hotel immediately adjacent to the Renaissance—into the fold.
Suddenly Marriott had two adjoining oceanfront hotels with a combined 545 guest rooms and almost 50,000 square feet of meeting space. The city also has a convention center that can handle groups of up to 5,000.
The potential to book bigger groups than ever before suddenly has become a reality, according to Royer Segura, cluster director of group sales for the Marriott properties in Santo Domingo.
With a metro area population of about 3 million, Santo Domingo is the largest city in the Caribbean, and its business sector spurs a meetings trade that is rapidly growing, says Segura, who quotes a metric by which Santo Domingo recently has grown from being the 50th-most-visited meetings city in Latin America to the 10th.
“We have a strong business in conferences, including a good number from the pharmaceutical sector, of which about 50 percent of the attendees are from North America, another 40 percent being from Latin America and the other 10 percent being from Europe and other regions,” he says.
Paola Madera, office manager for the city’s branch of CONNECT DMC, a 20-year-old company with headquarters in Punta Cana that opened a new location in Santo Domingo three years ago, says her company’s own experience seems to affirm the rise in group business that Segura reports.
She says CONNECT’s office in the city doubled its business from the first year to the second and tripled its revenues.
“This is a very diverse destination where you can be walking the cobblestone streets of a 500-year-old historic district one minute and then be enjoying the view from a rooftop venue on the 27th floor of a building in the middle of a modern downtown area a few minutes later,” she says.
Madera says Santo Domingo offers one advantage over Punta Cana—the Punta Cana hotels are right on the beach, but the allure of another of the country’s most popular beaches, Boca Chica, is about a 30-minute trip from the conference properties in Santo Domingo.
Attendees don’t have the distraction of the beach right out their hotel room window, but yet the azure waters and white sands of Boca Chica are easy to reach quickly when it’s time to relax.
While you’re here…
The DR has a lot of must-see spots, many of which are either in Santo Domingo or a short drive away.
Historic district. Compact and very walkable—covering just .4 of a square mile. The Colonial Zone (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is more of a reflection of what Latin America was 500 years ago. Must-see historic attractions are numerous, including Catedral Santa Maria La Menor, the first cathedral in the Americas; Alcazar de Colon, the first castle in the Western Hemisphere and the former residence of Christopher Columbus’ son, Don Diego Colon; and the Fortaleza Ozama, the oldest fortress in the Americas. Throw in the quaint shops and array of cuisines in the district’s restaurants, and groups could easily spend a whole day here.
Boca Chica Beach. Attendees can leave a conference in one of Santo Domingo’s conference facilities at 5 p.m. and be on the iconic shores of Boca Chica well before the sun goes down. And that would be good timing because locals say It’s one of the best places to watch the sun go down over the Caribbean Sea. The beach area has a great stock of oceanfront eateries, one of the most celebrated of which is Neptuno’s, which has a phenomenal seafood menu (including exquisite lobster).
Jarabacoa, at an altitude of 1,722 feet in the foothills of the DR’s Cordillera Central mountain range, is an outdoor lover’s paradise, with whitewater rafting and kayaking, hiking and bicycling and even a nine-hole golf course. The town, located in tropical rainforests that include compelling waterfalls, is about a two-hour drive from Santo Domingo, and with a variety of one-of-a-kind lodges and inns, the place makes an ideal group day trip from Santo Domingo. Because of its altitude and Caribbean latitude, temperatures are mildly warm in the day and comfortably cool at night, allowing the place to call itself “the City of Eternal Spring.”
