LA ROMANA — THINGS TO SEE AND DO
This provincial town in the southeastern part of the Dominican Republic was previously known for its main economic activity: sugar production, with abundant sugar cane fields in its outskirts. However, Austria-born American industrialist Charles Bluhdorn (who owned the American conglomerate Gulf +Western) bought sugar properties in that part of the country in 1967.
By 1975, Bluhdorn converted 7,000 acres of sugar land into the “Casa de Campo” tourism complex (making it the first ever luxury tourism enclave in the Dominican Republic). This resort complex is also responsible for building the town’s international airport (built mainly to fly in visitors from USA and elsewhere). Interestingly, because of Gulf+Western’s financial interest in the motion picture industry, the firm had a couple of films made in the outskirts of La Romana: “Apocolypse Now” and “Rambo”. By the mid-1980s, with Bluhdorn having passed away, “Casa de Campo” and a sugar company affiliated with the site (Central Romana) were sold to Cuban exile investors, the Fanjul brothers (South Florida-based sugar barons).