Tourism in the Dominican Republic - a legal guide - Pellerano ...

SCOPE OF APPLICATION
As it will be seen, Law 158-01 has a very large
scope of application, since it may benefit any person or
company that undertakes tourist activities, defined
widely, in any of the tourist poles indicated in the law,
which practically include all zones with tourist potential
in the country, apart from those that are already highly
developed.
Demarcation of tourist zones
Article 1 of the law, as amended by Law 184-02 in
order to extend beneficiary areas, lists the tourist poles,
provinces and municipalities that may benefit from the
established incentives, as follows:
1. Tourist Pole No. 4, Jarabacoa and Constanza.
2. Tourist Pole IV, enlarged: Barahona, Bahoruco,
Independencia and Pedernales
3. Tourist Pole V, enlarged: Montecristi, Dajabon,
Santiago Rodriguez and Valverde.
4. Tourist Pole VIII, enlarged, comprising the province
of San Cristobal and the municipality of Palenque,
the province Peravia and the province Azua de
Compostela.
5. Province of Maria Trinidad Sanchez and all its
municipalities.
6. Tourist Pole of the Samana province.
7. Province of Hato Mayor and its municipalities;
province El Seibo and its municipalities; province of
San Pedro de Macoris and its municipalities;
province of Espaillat and its municipalities: Gaspar
Hernandez, Higüerito, Jose Contreras, Villa Trina
and Jamao al Norte; provinces of Sanchez Ramirez
and Monseñor Nouel; province of Monte Plata; in
the province of La Vega, the municipalities of
Jarabacoa, Constanza and Guaigüí; the municipality
of Luperon, as well as El Castillo y La Isabela
Historica, in the province of Puerto Plata, and the
Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo.
8. Province of Santiago, and its municipalities.
9. Municipality of Lagunas de Nisibon and sections El
Macao, Uvero Alto and Juanillo, of La Altagracia
province.
Although the law refers to these regions as the
main focal points of the promotional efforts, it still
grants certain incentives of lesser scope to other zones.
In this regard, it provides that the tourist poles of
Puerto Plata or Amber Coast, Santo Domingo and
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ATTORNEYS AT LAW
others that have benefited from incentives in hotel
installations, may benefit from incentives in respect of
tourist activities, as long as they do not refer to the
construction of hotels or resorts. This is due to the fact
that the number of rooms has not been equally
distributed among the various regions of the national
territory, since the construction of hotel facilities has
concentrated in such areas.
It should be noted here that Law 184-02 added
however certain areas of Puerto Plata (Luperon, El
Castillo and La Isabela Historica) and Santo Domingo
(Colonial Zone) as priority zones (numeral 7), which
may thus benefit from all of the incentives established
in Law 158-01.
Furthermore, in relation to the province La
Altagracia, apart from the municipalities and sections
expressly mentioned in numeral 9 of the law (Gaspar
Hernandez, Higüerito, Jose Contreras, Villa Trina and
Jamao), as well as the Santiago province and its
municipalities (numeral 8), the incentives granted to the
installation of hotels have been limited, being provided
that these activities will not benefit from the income tax
exemption established for the other regions. However,
any other tourist activity undertaken in such zones will
benefit from all of the incentives provided in the law.
Definition of tourist activities
The law declares of national interest the
establishment in the national territory of companies
dedicated to tourist activities.
These activities have been expressly listed in Article
3 of Law 158-01 and include practically any type of
tourist project, from infrastructure works to small
enterprises that depend on tourism, as follows:
1. Hotels: hotel facilities, resorts and/or hotel
complexes.
2. Convention centers: construction of facilities for
conventions, fairs, international congresses,
festivals, shows and concerts.
3. Promotion of cruises: companies dedicated to the
promotion of cruise activities that establish, as main
port for the departure and final destination of their
ships, any of the ports provided in the law.
4. Parks: construction and operation of leisure,
ecologic and/or theme parks.
5. Maritime infrastructure: construction and operation
of port and maritime infrastructure servicing
tourism, such as ports for sports and marinas.
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