The Dominican Republic is moving forward with an aggressive strategy to boost international visitor arrivals by expanding its flagship tourism promotion initiative, the “RD Road Show Around the World,” to two additional U.S. markets: Philadelphia and Charlotte. Tourism Minister David Collado made the announcement as part of the government’s ongoing push to strengthen the country’s position as a top global travel destination by directly engaging key industry stakeholders.
The RD Road Show Around the World is specifically designed to connect Dominican tourism authorities with travel agents, tour operators, and airline executives from the world’s highest-potential source markets for Dominican travel. During promotional events in both new host cities, Collado outlined the country’s latest progress in expanding tourism infrastructure, highlighting ongoing hotel development projects in both well-established visitor hotspots and up-and-coming emerging destinations. He also emphasized that the Dominican government is making substantial public investments in upgrading public beaches and core transportation infrastructure, upgrades intended to improve visitor experiences and raise the country’s overall competitiveness in the crowded global tourism sector.
Philadelphia is a returning stop for the road show, having previously hosted the promotional event in 2025, but Charlotte marks an entirely new market for the Dominican Ministry of Tourism. The selection of Charlotte was driven by two key factors: the city’s fast-growing Dominican diaspora community, which generates consistent family and cultural travel between the U.S. city and the Caribbean island, and recent expansions in direct air connectivity between Charlotte and the Dominican Republic that have made travel easier and more accessible for U.S. visitors.
This expansion is a core component of Collado’s broader tourism diplomacy strategy, which prioritizes direct, in-person engagement with stakeholders in source markets rather than relying solely on remote marketing. The strategy gives industry professionals the opportunity to review the Dominican Republic’s newest tourism offerings, updated investment data, and latest national promotional campaigns firsthand, helping them better market the destination to their own customers.
Since the initiative launched in 2025, the RD Road Show Around the World has already traveled to dozens of major cities across North America, Latin America, and Europe. In the United States, previous stops include Houston, Chicago, San Antonio, Orlando, Miami, New York, and New Jersey, in addition to the 2025 Philadelphia event. In Canada, the road show has visited Toronto and Montreal, while key European and Latin American stops include Madrid, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Mexico City. The continued expansion of the initiative reflects the Dominican Republic’s commitment to growing its $10 billion-plus tourism sector, which accounts for nearly 18% of the country’s total GDP and supports hundreds of thousands of local jobs across hospitality, transportation, and retail.