The U.S. Commercial Service in Santo Domingo is organizing a Hotel and Recreation Equipment Trade Mission to Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata on February 8-11, 2000. This mission will target the following sectors :

1. Hotel and restaurant equipment including catering equipment, commercial cooking apparatus, institutional food preparation equipment, commercial laundry equipment, vending machines, hotel automation equipment, and resort furnishings.
2. Sporting goods and recreational equipment including health exercise facilities, resort/leisure facilities equipment, tennis equipment, camping/outdoor equipment, fishing equipment, and fitness equipment.

With stops in Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata, this mission will focus on tourism, which is one of the most dynamic sector in the Dominican economy. The tourism industry in the Dominican Republic has grown an average of 10 percent annually for the past 10 years. It is a major foreign currency earner, generating 20 percent of the gross national product, and generating 50,000 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs.

In 1998, 2.2 million tourists visited the DR. There are approximately 38,000 hotel rooms at present, with another 4,000 under construction.

The Trade Mission goal is to promote expanded trade and business opportunities for U.S. firms in the tourism sector. Participants will be able to meet with government officials and potential distributors and end-users.

The trade mission will start in Santo Domingo with two days of one-on-one meetings and will conclude with another stop of two days of meetings in Puerto Plata. At the first stop, the Commercial Service will provide an extensive briefing on doing business in the tourism sector in the Dominican Republic. Speakers will be from the private and government sector, as well as Embassy staff. Schedule of appointment for each participant will be provided. In addition, in each stop, participants will be the guests of honor in a reception in which they will be introduced to key business and government officials.

The proposed itinerary for this trade mission is the following:

• Monday February 7: Group arrival in Santo Domingo

• Tuesday February 8: Breakfast Briefing

• Wed. February 9: One-on-one appointments

• Thursday Feb. 10: Travel to Puerto Plata

• Friday February 11: One-on-one appointments

• Saturday February 12: Conclusion

Trade Mission promotion will include but not be limited to the following venues: the Export Assistance Centers and EAC sector and regional teams; past Commerce trade mission participants, various in-house industry lists. The Trade Mission will be listed in the C.S. Santo Domingo home page.

The recruitment and selection of private sector participants for these missions will be conducted according to the Statement of Policy governing Department of Commerce-led trade missions announced by Secretary Daley on March 3, 1997.

Recruitment will begin November 1 and will close January 31, 2000. The fee for this event will be $1,200.00. The Trade Mission will be open to 15 participants.

• Relevance of the company’s business to mission goals.
• Potential for business in the selected market.

• Timeliness of the company’s completed Participation Agreement and payment of the

mission participation fee.

• Provision of information on the company’s products and/or services and communication of the company’s primary objectives to facilitate appropriate matching with potential business partners.

• Certification that the company’s product and/or services are manufactured or produced in the United States or if manufactured or produced outside of the United States, the product/service must be marketed under the name of a U.S. firm and have U.S. content representing at least 51% of the value of the finished good or service.

Any partisan political activities of an applicant, including political contributions, will be entirely irrelevant to the selection process.

Sheila de Andujar, Trade Event Manager

C.S. Santo Domingo

American Embassy

Unit 5515

APO AA 34041

Tel. (809) 221-2171 ext. 408

Fax (809) 688-4838

E-mail: sheila.andujar@mail.doc.gov