The Dominican Republic has kicked off a wide-ranging effort to upgrade road safety across its top tourism hubs, with the newly launched National Plan for Tourist Road Signage, developed in partnership with RD-Vial, marking just the opening phase of a broader government strategy to strengthen the country’s position as a leading global tourist destination.
David Collado, the nation’s Minister of Tourism, outlined the government’s priorities in recent remarks, noting that reducing preventable traffic incidents stands as one of the most urgent core challenges for Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the National Institute of Traffic and Land Transport (Intrant). Focused efforts are already prioritized for the high-traffic Bávaro-Punta Cana region, one of the country’s most popular coastal tourism draws, where the government is targeting sweeping reforms to cut fatalities.
“On the Tourist Boulevard of the East, we must implement corrective measures to prevent the loss of any more lives — whether those are Dominican residents or international visitors,” Collado emphasized. “This is a shared mission that we all undertake alongside the President of the Republic. We are closely monitoring these issues and we will deliver tangible solutions.”
Beyond improved signage, the government’s plan includes a full organizational restructuring of road access and routing across all of the country’s major tourism zones, including Las Terrenas, Samaná, Puerto Plata, and Bayahibe. The overarching goal is to build a far more structured, visitor-focused travel environment that extends safety protections beyond resort properties and into the public road network that connects tourist sites.
Collado framed the road safety push as a critical component of the Dominican Republic’s long-term tourism vision, noting that competing regional destinations have faced unforeseen disruptions in recent years, creating a strategic opportunity for the DR to differentiate itself through superior infrastructure and safety management.
With the Dominican tourism sector already posting strong, consistent growth in international visitor arrivals, Collado explained that the current policy focus is on laying durable foundational infrastructure to ensure decades of sustained expansion. “Our work is geared toward keeping the Dominican Republic a global tourism powerhouse and a world benchmark for excellence in the sector,” he added.