Las Galeras Hosts First Ecotourism Fair

They all gathered along the beach of Las Galeras to support the work done by the local people and to enjoy the artististic activities and recreation accompanying the art show, …

The activity brought together hundreds of tourists, hotel owners, government authorities and, the main attraction, the people. They all gathered along the beach of Las Galeras to support the work done by the local people and to enjoy the artististic activities and recreation accompanying the art show, according to the Press and Communication Office of SECTUR.

Luis Simó, under secretary of tourism for International Affairs said that the activity forms part of the Development Plan for Sustainable Tourism with the idea of involving society in the benefits of tourism, offering the necessary tools to the residents in the tourism areas so that they can work not just as employees of the hotels but also be in a position of offering their own work to visiting tourists without the need of importing or bringing them from other places.

During the activity, Simó was accompanied by Elsa de León, vice minister of Tourism for Samaná as well as civil and military authorities in the area.

“This is the result of work done by the Tourism Ministry, Francisco Javier García, who with the creation of the Luis Apolinar Terrero Handcrafts School, founded for young people to learn these crafts,” he said.

He added that, in addition to the handcraft classes, cooking courses and other technical disciplines offered by the vocational school for hotel maintenance are working to found a permanent painting school.

“Currently we are working in conjunction with the Italian authorities in the creation of the ‘Ginger Route’ because we need to offer more options to tourists,” he said.

Simó said that SECTUR is working to train more tourism guides and personnel specialized in information and computer systems, for which they have 19 computers.

During the week of the the First Ecotourism Fair at Las Galeras, those who attended enjoyed the artistic and sports activities, such as volleyball, dominoes, dances, song and ballet.

Tourists enjoy the artwork and handcrafts made by the people of Las Galeras

Handcrafts made by people from Las Galeras .