MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 8, 2026--
The Dominican Republic reinforced its position as one of the most dynamic and strategic tourism destinations in the Americas by hosting its fourth signature Trade Show in Miami, convening more than 1,200 travel industry professionals from the United States, Canada, and Latin America. The event brought together tour operators, travel agencies, airlines, cruise lines, and online travel agencies from over 25 U.S. states and key source markets across the region, creating a high-impact platform for destination promotion, direct business negotiations, and strategic partnerships.
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The Dominican Republic’s Minister of Tourism emphasized the sector’s critical role in the national economy, highlighting an estimated $15 billion impact on GDP, $5.236 billion in net external income, $1.113 billion in taxes, and 479,722 jobs. The trade show also reflected the country’s strong commercial momentum, featuring more than 100 exhibitors and investing companies and generating more than 1,800 scheduled business appointments.
“Trade Show 2026 demonstrated that the Dominican Republic not only leads in visitor arrivals but also in its ability to generate real business opportunities and sustainable development across the entire tourism value chain,” said David Collado, Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic.
A Unified Travel Ecosystem
The program was supported by senior public and private-sector leadership spanning airports, ports, airlines, banking, hospitality groups, and tourism associations, reflecting the Dominican Republic’s public-private collaboration model that continues to drive investment, innovation, and international growth.
New Segments and Niche Travel Growth Areas Showcased
Trade Show 2026 reinforced the Dominican Republic’s positioning as a multi-segment, year-round destination. Programming highlighted expanded focus areas including luxury travel, cruise and nautical tourism, sports and adventure tourism, MICE and business events, gastronomy, medical tourism, and eco and cultural experiences, alongside the country’s core sun and beach appeal. Additional priority growth destinations include Miches, Punta Bergantín, Samaná, La Romana, Bayahíbe, Santiago, La Vega, Puerto Plata, Río San Juan, and Santo Domingo.
New Developments and Investment Pipeline
The Dominican Republic continues to expand air connectivity and accelerate hotel development while diversifying tourism beyond its traditional hubs. The event previewed a forthcoming Casa de Campo expansion and highlighted new international-branded growth, including St. Regis Cap Cana, W Punta Cana (Uvero Alto), Four Seasons Miches, and ZEL by Meliá Punta Cana, reinforcing continued confidence in the destination’s high-end trajectory.
Major Recognitions Spotlight Global Momentum
The Dominican Republic received multiple recognitions from leading travel industry organizations during the event, including acknowledgements associated with Northstar Travel Group, Travel + Leisure, Tripadvisor, MPI, and Despegar, underscoring the destination’s continued momentum across the Americas and internationally.
Experiential Activations that Brought the Destination to Life
Throughout the day, attendees experienced Dominican culture through immersive programming that included a “Meet in Paradise” cultural space, tastings of cassava and mamajuana, interactive cocoa experiences where guests created their own chocolate, traditional “faceless doll” painting, and merengue and bachata dance classes.
Exclusive Evening Roadshow Dinner Showcased the Dominican Republic
The Roadshow Dinner capped the program with a high-touch evening focused on destination awareness, relationship building and partnership development. Minister David Collado delivered a moving narrative supported by an interactive presentation and videos highlighting the Dominican Republic’s emerging and diverse regions and cultural experiences.
Trade Show 2026 remains a cornerstone of the Dominican Republic’s international promotion strategy, grounded in results, market intelligence, and strengthened relationships with leading industry players, supporting sustained, diversified, and competitive growth across priority markets.
About the Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic
The Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic (MITUR) is the government institution responsible for designing, leading, and implementing public policies for the development, promotion, and regulation of the country’s tourism sector. Its mission is to position the Dominican Republic as a leading destination in the Caribbean and globally, by promoting sustainable, competitive, and inclusive tourism that contributes to economic growth, job creation, and community well-being.
Through strategic partnerships with the private sector, international organizations, and local stakeholders, MITUR works to diversify the country’s tourism offering, strengthen infrastructure, promote the destination internationally, and continuously enhance service quality. The institution is committed to showcasing authentic experiences that highlight the Dominican Republic’s cultural, natural, and culinary richness, positioning the country as a safe, innovative, and world-class destination.
Juan Bancalari, president of Asonahores; Leo Matos, vice president of Central Romana; David Collado, minister of tourism; Frank Elias Rainieri, president and CEO of Grupo Puntacana; Víctor Pacheco, CEO of Arajet; and Igor Rodríguez, director general of IDAC, pictured from left to right.
Authorities braced for the possibility that a damaged chemical tank in Southern California could leak or explode as an evacuation order continued into the Memorial Day weekend for 50,000 residents with no timeline on when they can return.
Firefighters have been spraying the outside of the tank with water hoses in an effort to cool the chemicals heating up inside and prevent an explosion.
Lee Zeldin, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said Sunday the “most likely scenario” is a “low-volume release,” where officials will be able to “monitor, neutralize, and contain the threat.”
"The Orange County Fire Authority is working to keep the temperature of the tank down. That is very important,” he said on CNN.
He said keeping the temperature under 85 degrees F (29.4 degrees C) is key.
The pressurized tank overheated Thursday and began venting vapors at a company site in Garden Grove, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.
No injuries have been reported. Air monitoring tests have so far found that air pollution around the evacuation zone is so far within normal limits, and specialized equipment has been deployed to ensure no gas is released from the compromised tank, state and federal environmental officials said Saturday.
Meanwhile, some Garden Grove residents filed a class-action lawsuit on Saturday against GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems, the company that operates the facility where the tank is located.
Lawyers for residents living in the evacuation zone argued in their federal court lawsuit that regardless of what happens next, property values in the surrounding community are sure to be impacted.
“There is no good outcome here for the people who live nearby,” the lawyers wrote in a statement. “In the best-case scenario, a slow, controlled leak still forces residents out of their homes for an indefinite period, disrupting families, businesses, and daily life. In the worst case, a catastrophic explosion could send a plume and debris across a far wider area, damaging thousands of properties and exposing residents to serious health risks.”
Spokespersons for the company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.
Officials said the valves on the tank are broken or “gummed up,” which prevented crews from removing the chemical or relieving the pressure on the tank, said Craig Covey, Orange County Fire Authority division chief.
Firefighters’ first hope is to find a way to cool off the chemical inside the tank so it won’t leak or explode. If that is not possible, Purdue University engineering professor Andrew Whelton said it would be best if the tank sprang a leak so the chemical could be mostly contained. An explosion that could spread the chemical over a broad area and send shrapnel flying would be the worst-case scenario.
If the temperature inside the tank continues to increase, the pressure will continue to build as the methyl methacrylate converts from a liquid to a gas, because officials said the pressure relief valves on the tank were no longer working. Whelton said it’s unlikely that firefighters would consider creating a hole in the tank because of fears that could create a spark that might ignite the volatile and flammable gas.
Drones were monitoring temperatures at 10-minute intervals to watch for any spikes and planning was underway to ensure a possible leak could quickly be prevented from spreading into waterways or the ocean, Covey said in an early evening post on social media platform X.
“Sitting back and allowing these tanks to fail is unacceptable,” Covey said, adding there was no guarantee tanks will not breach and leak. “Our goal is to protect your homes — no damage to them — and protect the environment.”
Efforts to cool the tank appeared to be working Friday, but Covey backtracked the following day, saying a reading conducted by drones actually showed the temperature on the outside of the tank, not the inside.
“Unfortunately I do have to report that the temperature was 90 degrees,” Covey said, up from 77 Fahrenheit (25 Celsius) the previous morning.
Cooling the tank is important because the liquid chemical's flashpoint is 50 Fahrenheit (10 Celsius), according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Initially people in Garden Grove were ordered to leave. Evacuation orders were then expanded to some parts of five other Orange County cities including Cypress, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park and Westminster. Some people with pets planned to sleep in their cars.
Several shelters remained open Saturday, including at three high schools.
Marco Solano, 32, spent Friday night at his parents’ home, frustrated by the situation and monitoring the news to see if he could go home.
“I don’t think that they should have dangerous chemicals in a neighborhood area, especially that dangerous that they have to evacuate people,” Solano said. “But again, it's not up to me. I don’t make the laws. I don’t make the rules. We just have to do what is best I guess.”
Solano, who has multiple jobs, said he felt very tired and weak and believed the stress of the chemical leak was exacerbating his anemia and ulcerative colitis.
“This has been affecting me quite a bit,” he said.
Solano also said he went to his apartment after work Friday to grab belongings and saw other residents who had not evacuated, and he was worried for them.
The damaged tank is located at GKN Aerospace, which makes parts for commercial and military aircraft. It holds 6,000 to 7,000 gallons (22,700 and 26,500 liters) of methyl methacrylate, used to make plastic parts.
Exposure to methyl methacrylate can cause serious respiratory problems and even render someone unconscious. It can also cause neurological problems and irritate the skin, eyes and throat, according to fact sheets about the chemical. But Orange County health officials said the chemical is easy to smell and residents may notice it over a large area without being harmed.
Whelton said the volume of chemical in the tank is much smaller than in the disastrous 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which he studied when more than 115,000 gallons (435,000 liters) of vinyl chloride was released after officials blew open five tank cars and burned the chemical.
“Many of these are acute, fast-acting effects. But the longer somebody stays in contact with it, the more potential for significant damage that occurs,” Whelton said.
If there is an explosion, officials said they expect “severe structural damage and significant harm” in the blast zone closest to the tank.
If an explosion releases the chemical into the air, Whelton said, it will be crucial to conduct detailed air monitoring specifically for methyl methacrylate and not just generic tests for volatile organic compounds as officials did in East Palestine. General tests, often completed with handheld detectors, may not be capable of detecting the chemical. Indoor tests of buildings and homes may also be needed before residents return home.
The weather will be an important factor in determining where a plume of chemicals would go in the event of an explosion. Officials were developing maps to predict different scenarios about which areas would be most affected.
Meanwhile containment barriers have been set up to prevent the chemical from getting into storm drains or reaching creeks or the nearby ocean in the event of a spill, Covey said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Orange County, making state resources available to local agencies and letting state-owned properties and fairgrounds be used for shelters if necessary.
Garden Grove is next to Anaheim, home to Disneyland’s two theme parks, which were not under evacuation orders. Park officials said they were monitoring the incident and supporting employees impacted by evacuations.
GKN agreed to pay state regulators more than $900,000 in 2025 to settle violations involving recordkeeping, permitting issues and nitrogen oxide emissions, according to a report on the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.
Associated Press writers Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed.
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
People arrive at Freedom Hall, an evacuation center in Fountain Valley, Calif., after a storage tank containing a chemical used to make plastic parts overheated Thursday at an aerospace plastics facility in Garden Grove, on Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
Evacuees from an aerospace chemical plant tank leak move to another shelter after the Garden Grove Sports and Recreation Center closed for the night in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Water is sprayed on a tank that overheated at an aerospace plant in Garden Grove, Calif., Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
