USAID/DR tri-project evaluation: Volume III : Dominican sustainable tourism alliance program (DSTA)

This outcome is most notable in the nine existing tourism clusters created with USAID support under its earlier Competitiveness and Policy Project (CPP) which offers an alternative vision for sustainable tourism in the Dominican Republic (DR).Further, the evaluation concludes from these findings that the DSTA programs five-component strategy was soundly designed if at times unevenly executed for implementing a cluster approach to developing sustainable community-based organizations and micro, small and medium enterprises that can compete effectively in marketing tourism products and services, including the niche market of eco-tourism. This cluster approach has made noteworthy, if occasionally halting, progress toward achieving the DSTAs five-year life of program targets and is worthy of examination and consideration for replication in other development settings. Still, some design and implementation flaws have emerged, as has been recognized and largely addressed by USAID and DSTA implementing partners during the initial three years of Program execution.