SANTO DOMINGO — Construction is well underway on the new Moon Palace Punta Cana, a 2,150-room venture by Palace Resorts in the Macao zone of Punta Cana.

Upon completion, the expanded property – which will see the addition of 1,200 rooms – will boast 20 restaurants, nine bars, seven swimming pools, a water park, a Greg Norman Eco Signature Design golf course, a 75-booth wellness spa, casino, convention centre, food distribution centre and a housing community for hotel staff.

Moon Palace is located 500 metres inland from the coastline and is projected to bring in an additional 250,000 potential new tourists per year, says Palace Resorts. The resort is slated to open in 2021.

During a recent visit to the Dominican Republic, Palace Resorts’ Executive Vice President Gibran Chapur expressed his excitement about the new hotel, and also reassured industry partners at a luncheon that the D.R. continues to be safe destination for tourists, despite recent tourists deaths that occurred at several hotels.

He said that he felt “no concern whatsoever”, seeing the events as more of a “circumstantial situation resulting from the high-volume tourist influx” that the country has welcomed in recent years.

On his behalf, Tourism Minister Francisco Javier Garcia said that the country has responded to the situation: “We can feel confident that as a country we have undertaken the necessary actions to counteract the recent events, and will always work towards continuing to improve, and especially prevent these situations from ever taking place again.”