Carolina Briones: “CATA Works to Improve Competitiveness of the Region’s Tourism”

Caribbean News Digital Newsroom

Improving competitiveness in the tourism sector in the Central American region is one of the driving forces behind the Central America Tourism Agency (CATA), the organization’s secretary general, Carolina Briones, told Caribbean News Digital in an exclusive interview.

Is the British market still very important to the Central American countries?

Definitely, for the countries of the region, including the Dominican Republic, at the European level, the main target market is the UK. And in Central America, it is in third or fourth place.

How much has the closure of Thomas Cook affected the different destinations of the region?

Without a doubt, I believe that this can be seen all across Latin America and the entire world, with whom Thomas Cook had alliances. They had a wholesaler that represented a number of important arrivals in the region, but the incoming tour operators in the region will be affected in one way or another.

Are you happy with the amount of appointments you are having?   

We have the opportunity to visit the countries that are participating and find out how the level of negotiation has been and we have seen that they have had very good appointments, that they have coordinated among themselves, the Central American companies that come prepared, with previous appointments, and they have had negotiations in which they expect a great generation of income.

Is integration between the private sector and the public sector very important for countries?

It is very important for the countries and, in fact, CATA accounts for one of those organizations that achieves greater integration, so it is a management model. It is an agency that integrates the private sector and the public sector; we make decisions and execute them together.

In Central America, there is more and more integration among the chambers, between the tourism institutes and the associations of tour operators that belong to the chambers. It is something that, from the heart of CATA, we always foster. Greater integration of the public sector and the private sector is an advantage and an opportunity for Central America to be able to move forward. Only then, will we be able to move along.

How is the integration of the Dominican Republic into CATA faring?

It has been a great novelty. The Dominican Republic participated in the council of CATA with a voice of its own. It was a guest in our regional agendas and we always invited it to participate as a member of CATA. Therefore, they made the decision last year and from 2019 onward, it is also a full member of CATA. In terms of exchanges, each and every Central American nation has a successful experience to share with the Dominican Republic, let alone the successful experience the Dominican Republic also has to share with the region.

Now, both the private and public sectors have been integrated, through MITUR and Asonahores, which represents the private part of the Dominican Republic, to the activities and actions CATA is working on.

We are going to define how our joint promotion is going to be; we are going to define that we should do exchanges and joint workshops between the private sector and tour operators of the Dominican Republic and tour operators of Central America to see how we are going to promote ourselves in a joint manner.

I want to make it clear that this is an integration issue; it is a fact that the Dominican Republic has never been far from the region. They belong to the Central American integration system and the Dominican Republic is a country that has been a longstanding collaborator of CATA. And make no mistakes about it; this is going to be a win-win situation for everyone.

We have entered into a process of integration, of getting to know Central America, of seeing how we can work together in joint actions that can be of benefit to the private sector especially.

We are defining our work actions with the MITUR, how we are going to promote ourselves. Maybe not through multidestination, but it is a fact that the Dominican Republic is a complementary product, as well as Central America is a complementary product for the Dominican Republic.

Imagine how attractive a package for a European tourist, in which you sell spectacular beaches in the Dominican Republic coupled with a product of archaeology and culture that has Central America, can turn out to be.