Wally Brewster
Wally Brewster

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Tourism has hired Patino, Brewster & Partners for crisis communications and brand management consulting.

PB&P is the firm of Wally Brewster, who served as US ambassador to the Dominican Republic from 2013 to 2017.

Brewster and his partner, Bob Satawake, bought a residence in Casa de Campo, La Romana, after his term as ambassador.

Casa de Campo was the DR’s first luxury resort when it opened about 50 years ago.

The Ministry has a one-year contract with Brewster’s firm that calls for a $30K monthly retainer.

The pact renews automatically for another year unless it is terminated by either party via a 30-day written notice.

Nearly 1M tourists arrived in the DR in February, which was up 17 percent from 2022 and nine percent from the pre-pandemic 2019 level.

The Miami Herald on Feb. 22 ran an article that was headlined, “Is the Dominican Republic a safe vacation spot in 2023? Maybe not right now.”

The story noted that the US State Dept. has a level 2 travel advisory on the DR, which calls for travelers to “exercise caution in the DR due to crime.”

The advisory noted that the “development of a professional tourist police corps, institution of a 911 system in many parts of the country, and a concentration of resources in resort areas means these tend to be better policed than urban areas like Santo Domingo.”