The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Tourism is launching new safety measures

Published on : Saturday, July 20, 2019

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Tourism is launching new safety measures for alleviating the fear of Americans traveling to the Caribbean island, according to the ministry’s chief of staff Pablo Espinal.

Among the measures are inspecting hotels more often, requiring hotels to include emergency contact information in every guest room, adding more monitoring measures to medical facilities located inside hotels and opening an emergency tourist center.

“Given the amount of coverage that we have gotten over the last couple of months we do recognize that there may be some concern among some of the tourists,” said Espinal.

No less than 10 American citizens have died after an apparent sudden health issue in the Dominican Republic since June 2018. The FBI team of investigators on the island assisted in toxicology tests of three American deaths. The results of the tests will take more than the anticipated 30 days to complete.

Dominican Republic authorities said that their own investigations revealed that the Americans died from natural causes.

Espinal explained that hotels inspected twice a year in the past will be inspected four times a year now, including detailed food and beverage checkups. In the next few weeks, every hotel in the country will need to post an emergency information card in every guest room with ways to contact embassies, the tourism police force and 911 services. Also, the qualifications of the medical personnel working inside first aid facilities at hotels will be screened for licensing requirements and training.