The Dominican Republic will host the 28th Conference Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), to be held from Oct. 11-14 in Santo Domingo.

After the announcement, President Luis Abinader and Minister of Tourism David Collado highlighted the importance of the event, which constitutes the largest cruise conference and trade show for cruise ships in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.

Abinader said that the government will give its full support to guarantee the success of the FCCA annual conference, which will be held in the country for the second time. He assured that the event is the ideal platform to continue positioning cruise tourism in the different markets.

“We have a shared success story with FCCA and I guarantee that together they reached the port of progress and more sources of jobs,” the president proclaimed when leading the activity.” Collado, highlighted the importance of the FCCA conference to ensure a greater push for cruise tourism in the Dominican Republic.

“Cruise tourism has an impact straight in the country’s economy. It accounts for more than 4,000 jobs direct and 10,000 indirect” he said. The industry also generates more than $135 million for the country.

The president of the FCCA, Adam Ceserano, highlighted the success obtained by Dominican Republic in the recovery of tourism, including the cruise industry. Cesarano said that the Dominican Republic is ideal for holding the 28th version of the conference FCCA which will have repercussions positively in the development and strengthening of the cruise industry in the country.

“With the country’s support we will be back to have the splendor we had before the pandemic,” he said.

The conference will be attended by more than 60 cruise executives, including presidents and directors, top governments leaders of more than 40 countries, as well more than 500 representatives from diverse parts of the world. It offers the perfect forum to develop mutual understanding and relationships to improve the cruise tourism business among the participants.

Dominican Republic tourism officials report that May saw 82,199 cruise passengers arrived in the Dominican Republic on 10 cruise lines, carrying out 32 operations, of which 19 were cruise ships and 13 ferries. From July 2021 to May 2022, 754,760 cruise passengers registered with 51 cruise lines, the officials add. Due to the importance of the cruise industry for the country, the Ministry of Tourism is a platinum member of the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association, active since 2001. As a Platinum member Platinum, it has received support of the FCCA and all its affiliates (Royal Caribbean Cruise line, Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian, Princess Cruise, to mention some).

FCCA helps the country to able to deal with new arrivals, technician support for the improvement of the ports, future projects, improvements in customer service programs and other industry issues which help to strengthen the tourism segment