Ready for Business: Dominican Republic Invites You to Discover Miches

Your clients know Punta Cana, but few are aware of Miches. Less than a decade ago, Miches was a remote fishing town on the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic. Its centerpiece, Playa Esmeralda beach, is a sweeping, quiet contrast to the island’s other lively beaches, though until recent years, it offered little tourism infrastructure. 

Today, The New York Times has listed Miches as one of its 52 Places to Go in 2026, and there’s good reason for it.

Investment Fueling Growth

Recent developments, including major improvements to the highway drive (about 1:30) connecting Punta Cana with Miches, along with more than $1 billion in private hotel investment, are transforming the quiet coastal town into the Dominican Republic’s newest luxury resort destination. 

Club Med’s Michès Playa Esmeralda was the first major resort and the first international-branded hotel to open in Miches in 2019, targeting luxury travelers and modern families for the first time in the region. 

Two resorts are currently open: Zemi Miches All-Inclusive Resort, part of the Curio Collection by Hilton and Viva Miches by Wyndham. Future developments include Four Seasons’ first Dominican Republic property, the US$200 million-plus Four Seasons Resort and Residences Dominican Republic at Tropicalia, opening in 2027, as well as properties from Marriott and Original Group.

In celebration of the beach town’s transformation into an eco-luxury destination, the Dominican Republic Ministry of Tourism hosted a black-tie gala at Miami’s loanDepot park on June 25, 2026. TMR was there to learn more about one of the largest waves of tourism development in the Dominican Republic’s history. 

Building a New Tourism Destination

As a new tourism corridor takes shape, the high-end gala underscored the Dominican Republic’s push to position itself for a more premium, experience-driven segment of travelers. The evening welcomed a few hundred guests to a celebration on the field of the indoor baseball stadium, with the event scheduled during the height of the sports season. 

The evening included presentations from David Collado, Minister of Tourism for the Dominican Republic, along with messages from several hotel brands developing properties in the region, including Alejandro Reynal, President and CEO of Four Seasons, and Gabriel Escarrer, President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International. 

Colombian music star Fonseca was the surprise musical guest, playing a rousing hour-long set of his hits, while Miami-favorite Emilio Estefan made an appearance for an impromptu drum solo. 

Jennifer Elias Franjul, Marketing Director for the Ministry of Tourism for the Dominican Republic, tells TMR, “Miches is a very special place for the Dominican Republic because it’s luxury, but also eco-friendly. So it’s a really good mix.”

“We have wellness stories. We have luxury tourism. You can take jet skis from the beaches. You can see the turtles. You have a lot of communication with the environment. We are creating a destination that’s more sustainable and more environmentally friendly.”

In comparing Punta Cana to Miches, Franjul says, “Punta Cana has more all-inclusive tourism and, of course, has a lot of different complexes like Cap Cana and Grupo Punta Cana. But Miches has something special. It has this sustainability, and it has a lot of virgin spaces right now—virgin beaches.”

Travel Advisors Take Notice

Jennifer Davis Einsetler, a travel aadvisor and owner of Island Travel Boutique LLC, based in New York, shares her excitement about the emerging destination: “In New York, we have many non-stop flights into the Dominican Republic, and I think we need something new.” She adds, “I love that it’s luxury eco chic for those clients that want something different.” 

Sunny Shahani, from sunnys.co, a new platform that uses AI to help travel agents create itineraries, says, “With the grand scope of this event, you can see where Miches is growing toward the luxury side and the evolution of tourism to the Dominican Republic.” 

As Fonseca closed out the evening with one last song, Franjul emphasized that “the Dominican Republic has everything, and we are prepared to receive all the tourists and all the travel agents that want to come to our destination.”