The Dominican Republic continues consolidating itself as an attractive tourist destination as is confirmed with the news that, for the 11th straight month, large numbers of foreign tourists are arriving at the various airports around the country.

The Dominican Republic continues consolidating itself as an attractive tourist destination as is confirmed with the news that, for the 11th straight month, large numbers of foreign tourists are arriving at the various airports around the country.

According to Tourism Minister Félix Jiménez, last month 281,338 non-resident tourists entered the country, marking a 3.01% increase over last June of 2007 when 273,120 tourists visited, according to Central Bank figures.

The parts of the world where tourists most traveled from include Europe with 1.77% more tourists than June 2007 and Latin American and the Caribbean with a formidable 42.8% increase from last year.

Along this line, nevertheless, total North American tourism dropped 1.25% “as a result of the decrease in tourism from the United States which was down 2.45%,” he explained. “Despite this, arrivals from Canada (the country´s second-largest market) were up 7.31% from the same time in June 2007.”

During the first semester of the year, noted Jiménez, some 2,215,985 non-resident tourists – more than 5.22% from January to June 2007 – visited the country, of which 1,958,729 were foreigners.

During the first half of 2008, the largest increases in regional terms came from North America (7.9%), South America (29.78%) and Europe (2.65%), and particularly from Canada (11.38%), the United States (5.47%), France (6.92%), Spain (3.40%), Argentina (39.18%), Chile (52.43%), Colombia (22.40%) and Venezuela (8.34%).

“Among the emerging markets with the largest growth is Russia with 73.44%, Mexico (14.22%), Ecuador (54.05%) and Peru with 41.07%,” pointed out Jiménez.

These positive results also reflect the increase in tourism with respect to the first semester of 2007 when 12.64% tourists entered the Las Américas International Airport, 9. 01% at Punta Cana Airport, 3.68% at the Puerto Plata Airport and 3.54% arrived at the airport in Samaná.

Jiménez expressed concern, nevertheless, at the drop in tourist arrivals at the international terminals in Cibao and La Romana.

The Tourism Minister gave these declarations prior to traveling to the United States where he will be following up on a promotion, investment & marketing strategy which has already met with great success since its implementation by SECTUR (Tourism Ministry) and the central government.