This week (20th – 26th July 2025) saw the launch of the Association of Tourist Press of the Dominican Republic. Puerto Plata was chosen for this inauguration as it is recognised as being the birthplace of Dominican Republic tourism.
The association is a non-profit organization aimed at promoting research, training, and ethical outreach around national and international tourism development. It will have subsidiaries in important tourist and urban centers of the country, including Puerto Plata, Sosúa-Cabarete, Santiago, Samaná, La Romana, Santo Domingo, as well as in the U.S. cities of Miami and New York, where a large Dominican community linked to the sector lives.
Whilst we welcome the formation of this association, we seriously cannot believe the chosen acronym. ASOPRETURD! Really! Anyone who has any understanding of slang knows that “turd” is a lump of excrement. Add to that the opening two letters AS, and you have a connection that rapidly forms an AS-PRE-TURD. Or one might be excused for thinking this is an organization designed to produce “pieces of solid waste”. Hardly the most appropriate designation for an organization created to promote tourism in Puerto Plata and the Dominican Republic as a whole.
Hopefully, someone with some vision will recognize the unfortunate choice of this acronym and change it before it becomes indelibly fixed in people’s minds!