Supporting Local
How your holiday can be a powerful force for good
Iberostar Group, through the Iberostar Foundation, has joined forces with Planeterra, an impact-driven non-profit organisation to enable tourism to uplift communities. They have launched an ambitious program to promote community tourism initiatives at destinations where the Spanish hotel group is present. The aim is to boost the social and economic development of the local communities in which it operates and protect their ecosystems.
This initiative, which establishes Iberostar as an international leader in responsible tourism for its care of the environment and people, has been piloted in Mexico and the Dominican Republic where Iberostar has 18 hotels and resorts. Iberostar Group plans to extend this pioneering project to all regions where Iberostar hotels are present by 2030.
One such example is the Iberostar Costa Dorada hotel in the Dominican Republic, which has been hosting two associations at its premises to offer resort guests a weekly immersive tourism experience with the local community.
Within the hotel, guests have the opportunity to learn about the process of growing cocoa and making chocolate thanks to the Chocal cooperative –driven by thirty local women from Altamira, Puerto Plata– whose project helps more than 200 farmers and their families.
Also, through the artisans of the Petrified Wood Association (Asoartep), from the town of Imbert and Puerto Plata, hotel guests will be able to witness, interact with and learn about the local wood carving techniques, an activity that benefits more than 250 families in the community.
Thanks to these initiatives, Iberostar guests can purchase products and handicrafts from the local communities where Iberostar operates, which are usually outside the conventional tourist circuits. This in turn raises awareness among visitors regarding the protection, conservation, and promotion of the local economy.
Iberostar's partnership with Planeterra is changing the game by proving that major hotel chains can make a difference and use tourism as a catalyst to promote community-wellbeing while protecting the environment, and celebrating culture and traditions.
