Here I would like to share with you the experience of my Colombian friend and what he notices in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. He went for only 5 days, it was an all-inclusive resort so had access to room, private beach, pool, buffets (breakfast, lunch and dinner), coffe shops and bars. Here is his experience from his point of view👇
I understand that this type of tourism (resorts) don’t really show you the real way locals live, even more, you don’t really meet locals more than the people working in the resort. But I would like to tell you my experience as it was my first time in this type of all-inclusive resorts.
The plan I got was around $1200 USD, including everything I mentioned before plus they pick you and take you back to the airport. As soon as I arrive to the airport nothing really to complain, migration was quick given that around 3 flights arrived at the same time. Is a small airport, give me vibes like any other airports in the Colombian Caribbean coast. After I cleared migration, asked for the transportation company and they took me to the van, I went alone and dropped me to the airport.
Highways were good and in my way to the resort I was surprised of the number of hotels and how big they were. As soon as I got to my hotel it was surpassing how big and well organized everything was, checkout was smooth (but I was arriving essentially alone so it helped). It surprised me the number of employees I saw everywhere, everything was clean and well organized.
Rooms are clean and everything you need they can provide, it was clear at this point the service is good and the employees try to help you all the time.
Now, if you never been in that type of resorts (as I did at that point) you go there to essentially relax and not doing more than going to the beach or the pool, get tan, go eat and drink as much as you want, then just go to sleep. After one hour of being there you get used to go to the bar and ask for something to drink or just go to the buffet to get food. Is not expected, but people usually tip in USD, they give 1 or 2 dollars and I did see a lot of people tipping.
I did see a lot of families with kids, lots of couples and to a lesser extent groups of singles men and women. I also got to see a wedding happening at the beach the first day. I imagine the resort I went was a more popular destination for families and couples. Obviously if your plan is to go as a single guy/girl you can find a resort specialized in parties and singles trying to meet new people.
In terms of capacity I see tons of guest, it was busy always and you get to see people from different parts of the world, I see a lot of Canadians (particularly from Quebec), Spaniards, Russians (surprisingly), Americans and latinos from Argentina.
I notice how important tourism is for Dominican Republic and how hard they work towards attracting people to the country, the business model of all-inclusive resorts certainly is working. Just imagine, I got to see only one resort but the city is full of them.
It bring me to the main thing that I notice and a lesson for Colombia. Everything is organized and you can see how tourism is a well establish industry there. Everything works towards providing a good service:
-You arrive and the transportation company provably has an arrangement with the resort, so you the tourist don’t need to worry about it or worrying about taxi overcharges.
-At the resort you see how many people work there, so I guess employment for locals is high.
-You get to see the usual plans for going to buggy cars, excursions, parties, going on tours etc… But I was in the beach all the time and people obviously will come at you to try to sell tours, cigars or crafts, but is not like Cartagena where you feel bombarded with people trying to sell you things.
I feel thats a lesson for Colombia tourism. I could feel how everything there was organized with the purpose of serving tourist a good stay there. I bet there may be instances where they try to scam, but never to me while I was there. Sadly, when you go vacationing in Colombia, you arrive defensively and you know people will try to overcharge you and try to sell you things all the time.
On the other side, I still feel surprised on how big and how much people work in the resorts. It made me think on how they profit, I was always wondering how much they spend on food daily, on salaries (again I see a lot of people working plus the people you don’t see at the kitchens, cleaning, clerks…), all the alcohol, and the utilities. I mean, if they still working and receiving that many people they should be on profit but in my mind still crazy.
It was a good experience, you go for a full days of relax and the hotel and the people working there help you to do that. I see a lot of thing that can be learn for Colombia specially in the tourism organization, specially because the growing number people arriving to Colombia and becoming day by day a tourism attraction.
I understand now how Punta Cana specialized on this type of tourism and completely respect how well it is going for them (or at least it looks like it). I can see as a costumer that the industry provides a lot of employment and money to the country and they deserve that for the good service they provide.