Punta Cana- Eye Spy With My Little Nikon Eye (4)

In the late 1960s, Frank Rainieri, a Dominican entrepreneur in his 20s and Theodore Kheel, a high-powered New York attorney and labor mediator teamed up with other investors, to acquire a 58-million square meter lot on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic. The area that is known today as Punta Cana was mostly an undeveloped coastal area of Altagracia province.

At the time the closest major city, Higüey, was a 5-hour drive. 

Their first project was a 40 guest hotel called the Punta Cana Club. 

In 1970, Rainieri changed the original name of the place, Yauya or Punta Borrachos,(drunken point) for Punta Cana. In 1978, the Paris Mediterranean Club joined the Grupo Punta Cana SA project, building a 350-room hotel within the project. Later, the Barceló and Newco Group settled in the Bavaro area.

 Bávaro was conceived as a town for the workers of the Punta Cana tourist complex, but it has been transformed into an important center for tourist services after the hotel expansion to the north of Punta Cana around Bávaro beach.

 Punta Cana is a tourist destination, and the area is a key contributor to tourism in the Dominican Republic.

(source)