Spend 10 minutes with a Dominican trying to develop the country’s tourism industry and you are left in no doubt about which direction the country is trying to go. Executives at Cap Cana seem to outbid each other to stress the upmarket “exclusive” qualities of “class” and “elegance” sought at the $1.5bn resort complex being developed on the east coast. Bankers enthuse about selling a combination of luxury tourism and real estate to wealthy Americans.

Even President Leonel Fernández likes to compare the potential of the Samaná area in the north-east with that of Monte Carlo.