Isla Catalina interview -an interview with Alex a stallholder and his colleagues Ramon, Adolfo and Alex

Text of Interview With Alex and friends

Q] How long have you been here?
A] We`ve been here for over 20 years.

Q] And the majority of the tourists, where do they come from, from all parts of the globe?
A] Yes, many come from Europe,Italy, France, all parts.

Q] And those that actually buy things, where are they from? For example the US, Canada?
A] Everybody buys. Some are more forthcoming than others, but eveyone buys. Now take the German tourists, they tend to buy less.

Q] And British tourists? How do we fare?
A] Yes they buy.

Isla Catalina

Q] And what type of tourist tends to buy more? For example, those who come on the day trips from the resorts, or those that come in on the cruise ships?
A] Well all tourist types buy. However if you compare the tourists from the resorts, who perhaps have already been to other locations in the Dominican Republic, with the cruise ship passengers who are calling in for a few hours, the latter have rarely been to other DR locations, and it is the cruise ship passengers who would tend to buy more of their locally made Dominican momentos here.

Q] OK so how many times per week do the cruise ships come in?
A] Well now that we are in May (2009), this season (September 2008 to March 2009) is more or less over. The truth is that this previous 6-month season was pretty low. Whereas there used to be 2 visits per week, we only had two two-week periods last season when we had 3 cruise ship passenger visits per week. On most of the other weeks last season we only had one visit. Those cruise ship visitors would tend to go to Santo Domingo first then come here.

Q] And you guys, you don`t come from Catalina Island here or sleep here right?
A] Right. By 4pm every afternoon we are already on the boat on our way back to the mainland.

Isla Catalina
Q] The boat, is this a co-operative venture, or do you have to pay individually?
A] No, we have to pay 6 dollars. And we rent the shop space and pay taxes on the rental. We also have to pay the National Parks authority (under which Catalina island comes) and we have to pay the Ministry of Tourism annually for our trading licence.[cont right]