In a targeted push to elevate the Dominican Republic’s profile as a top-tier leisure and business travel destination for Canadian visitors, Julio Peña Guzmán, president of the nation’s Civil Aviation Board (JAC), joined Tourism Minister David Collado on the ground at the recently launched Meet in Paradise Toronto 2026 industry summit. The high-profile event is explicitly designed to amplify bilateral engagement between the Dominican tourism ecosystem and Canadian travel sector stakeholders, unlocking new layers of cross-market collaboration that extend far beyond traditional vacation marketing. During his address to a packed audience of tour operators, travel agents, airline executives, and trade officials, Peña Guzmán framed robust, expanded air connectivity as the non-negotiable backbone of sustained, inclusive tourism growth for the Dominican Republic. He outlined that adding new direct routes, increasing flight frequency on high-demand corridors, and diversifying travel options for Canadian consumers would cut down travel friction and position the country’s lesser-known coastal, cultural, and eco-tourism destinations within easier reach of millions of potential visitors across Canada. The JAC head went on to formalize his agency’s full, long-term commitment to cross-sector collaboration, stating that his team will work hand in hand with domestic and international airline carriers, airport operators across the Dominican Republic, and every segment of the national tourism value chain to remove regulatory bottlenecks and fast-track the rollout of expanded air transport links between the two nations. Peña Guzmán took time during his remarks to publicly recognize the transformative, ongoing international outreach efforts led by Minister Collado to raise global awareness of Dominican tourism offerings, and extended a special note of gratitude to Canadian tour operators and frontline travel agents, whose on-the-ground promotion work he credited as a critical driver of steady visitor arrivals from Canada in recent years. Beyond leisure travel gains, Peña Guzmán emphasized that strengthened air links would deliver ripple economic benefits far outside the tourism sector, catalyzing increased cross-border business activity, expanding bilateral trade flows, attracting new foreign direct investment to the Dominican Republic, and creating thousands of formal, sustainable jobs for local communities across the country. He closed his address with a direct call to Canadian tourism industry representatives to build on existing partnerships, explore untapped market segments, and co-develop innovative new travel products that deepen long-term tourism and economic ties between Canada and the Dominican Republic.
JAC promotes expanded air connectivity at Meet in Paradise Toronto 2026
