Dominican Republic to open new business-oriented hotels

The lodging offerings of Santo Domingo, the Dominican capital, will get enhanced shortly with the oncoming opening of two establishments that will add 250 more rooms in all.

The new hotels are the Quality Real Airport Santo Domingo and the Courtyard Hotel. Both resorts will target businesspeople from the United States.

The Quality Real Airport is owned by Choice International Hotel, while the Courtyard will be run by Marriott Co.

Other media organizations form the Caribbean island report a 22 percent hike in the number of travelers hailing from several European countries. Inflow of tourists from the Old World, except from Sweden, has been on a roll lately.

A more benign euro exchange rate is probably one of the reasons behind this upswing since European travelers are now getting 25 percent more for their money.

Topping the list of Dominican-bound European trekkers is France with a staggering 35 percent, followed by Germany with only 1.5 percent. Spain leapfrogged from 110,000 arrivals in 2002 to 170,000 this time around.