Meetings and Congresses

Major regional conventions, financial conferences, and international professional gatherings have been held in the Dominican Republic for years. Thanks to the availability of meeting rooms on all of its coastal resorts, together with the country’s modern telecommunications network, frequent airline connections, and unmatched tourist attractions, the Dominican Republic is increasingly being recognised as the location of choice for businesses, organisations and professional groups who wish to combine effective business and pleasure.

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo is considered to be an ideal meeting destination, which offers an extraordinary combination. Not only is it a sophisticated and modern metropolis with a historically significant cityscape, fine dining and busy nightlife, but it also offers eight city parks, a beautiful tropical seaside location with proximity to world-class beaches. Santa Domingo quite clearly is a prime choice for meetings.

Visitors to Santo Domingo benefit from recent renovations carried out in major hotels in preparation for several heads of state summits held in recent years. But it is not necessary to be a head of state to appreciate the throbbing beat of the city’s nightlife,  the pulsing tempo of its day time shopping, its gastronomic diversity, or the access to incomparable land and water sports. And if the gaming attractions and entertainment do not convince you, don’t forget our never-ending Dominican tropical sunshine!

Following the celebration of the summer 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domingo, the city is flush with Olympic standard venues, which can be booked for world and regional championships. Many venues feature air-conditioning and are available for meetings. Most of these installations are located within the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic park, on the east side of the city, near the Columbus Lighthouse and the National Aquarium.

The Dominican capital hotels can accommodate small meetings to large groups of up to 1,500 delegates in their deluxe hotel ballrooms. Several hotels are located close to each other, allowing for multiple functions at different hotels. Such is the case with the hotels, which are grouped on the Sea-Side Boulevard known as Malecón. 

The city of Santo Domingo boasts several large air-conditioned auditoriums, which can be booked for special events planned as part of a major meeting. Among these auditoriums, we have the National Theatre (1,500 delegates), the Casa San Pablo (1,200 delegates), the Centro de Convenciones y Exposiciones (875 delegates), the Central Bank (723 delegates), the Universidad Pedro Enrique Ureña auditorium (700) or the smaller Museum of History & Geography (500), the Sala Manuel Rueda at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (555) and the nearby Sala Juan Francisco Garcia at the National Music Conservatory (400). Among the smaller halls, which can be booked for corporate hospitality, we have the Instituto Cultural Dominico Americano (300), the Ministry of Foreign Relations School of Diplomacy (250) and the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo Auditorium (250). For those seeking large open air areas, you can choose the seaside water and lights showplace, the Agua y Luz Theatre (3,000 delegates), or the Plaza de España in the Colonial City, facing the Columbus Alcazar, from where the conquest of the New World was planned. Hotel convention staff can assist you in booking these facilities. 

Meetings are better in the Dominican Republic. Ample availability of multilingual translating staff, state of the art audiovisual support, trained logistics personnel and excellent ground transport services are some of the reasons for hosting meetings in this cosmopolitan Caribbean nation. Furthermore, organising impressive plenary sessions, well-integrated small groups, comfortable seminars, shirtsleeve workshops and efficient product launches are all part of the day's work for experienced Dominican planners. 

Hotel banquet and sales staff will assist meeting planners and, when necessary, recommend external contractors. It is the teamwork and close attention to detail, which distinguishes them. They are also experts on how to orchestrate the perfect balance of formal meetings with incentive activities. They will make efficient use of your group's time by interweaving substantive business meetings with entertaining “theme nights,” intriguing excursions, visits to cultural attractions and, of course, lots of simple leisure-time fun. 

Obviously, the needs of spouses will not be overlooked. Trips to historic sites, natural attractions, championship golf courses, world-class shopping centres, or magnificent beaches, can easily be integrated in their programmes.

Santiago and Puerto Plata

Santiago and Puerto Plata to the north should not be overlooked when meeting venues are under discussion. They offer functional alternatives to the busy capital.

Santiago, the Dominican Republic’s second city, is every bit as lovely as the capital in its verdant heartland setting, but quieter. It is a city where education enjoys the highest civic priority. Santiago’s prestigious higher education institutions, such as the Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, rent out their meeting rooms and auditorium for special events. In addition the Gran Teatro Cibao can hold 1,800 delegates theatre-style. The Hotel Matum can seat 400, and the new Centre León offers a small auditorium equipped with the most advanced technology and seats 200.

Recently renewed in Cofresí, Pueto Plata, the Sun Village Resort has a meeting room for 250 people and an open air theatre which seats 450. Beside the blue Atlantic in beautiful Puerto Plata, popular Playa Dorada offers superb accommodation in numerous adjacent resorts. An abundance of restaurants, clubs, and night spots, great golfing and water-sports, superb beaches and experienced support staff make this area a desirable choice for mid-size groups who wish to mix professional activity with a family holiday. In Caribbean Village Club on the Green (holiday complex), Puerto Plata Village and Playa Naco resorts offer the largest facilities for meetings, ranging from 350 to 800. Nearby, the Iberostar Costa Dorada can accommodate 450 people and the Marien Coral by Hilton can seat 450.

Further East, along the North Coast, Sosúa’s Casa Marina Reef has facilities for 700 and the Sosua Bay Hotel & Victorian House opened an 800-seater convention centre in early 2004.

A 40-minute drive away from Sosua, will lead you to the Bahía Príncipe San Juan resort, which has a convention centre with a capacity of 400 theatre-style.

Boca Chica, Juan Dolio, La Romana and Bayahibe

Near Santo Domingo, along the south-eastern coastline, from Boca Chica, through Juan Dolio onto La Romana, a wide range of meeting rooms are available, capable of hosting most meetings. The larger facilities in the regions are the Hamaca Coral by Hilton Resort, which is rapidly becoming a prime meeting centre. Located at 10 minutes from Las America International airport, the Nation’s principal port of entry, Hamaca Coral by Hilton has facilities to host meetings for up to 1,200 delegates theatre-style.  Half an hour to the east, meetings for up to 300 people are available in the Juan Dolio’s hotels.

Further east, shortly after the city of La Romana, the world-renown five stars Casa de Campo Resort offers its modern convention centre, a technologically advanced facility with several break–out rooms and a hall, which seats 530 theatre-style. It also offers the use of its 5000-delegate facility, the Altos de Chavón amphitheatre, all in a picturesque holiday setting combining recreation, entertainment, sports, fine dining and leisure.

In Bayahibe, the hotels Sunscape Casa del Mar, Canoa Coral by Hilton, Wyndham Dominicus Palace and Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus have capacity for more than 300 theatre-style.

Punta Cana, Bávaro and Macao

The country’s prime convention centre is located in the east at Barceló Bávaro Convention Centre as part of the Barceló Bávaro Beach Resort, Convention Centre, Golf & Casino. The convention centre can accommodate up to 2,600 delegates theatre-style. The centre has several rooms with capacity for mid-size and smaller conventions. In November 2002, it hosted the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State, presided by the King and Queen of Spain. Attracted by the beach destination, most visiting Heads of State and Governments attended with their entire families to enjoy the sun and surf.

In addition, along the eastern coastline, most hotels can accommodate small and mid-sized meetings for those seeking picture postcard beach scenery. Most resorts in the area can host meetings of between 300 and 700 people theatre-style.

Whatever Dominican destination your group chooses for its get-together, getting there is easy thanks to convenient international air connections, in addition to a superb network of first class motorways, unmatched by any Caribbean nation. Holding meetings in the Dominican Republic can honestly be described  as Dominicans love to describe things : yet another case of “no problema.”