Tourism to the Dominican Republic Still on the Rise

If this year’s statistics of international arrivals to the DR are any indication, it looks like it’s going to be a great year for tourism, far better than last. Tourism Minister Félix Jiménez reported that Central Bank statistics confirmed that 372,002 foreign tourists traveled here during month of February. That figure is up 12.74% from last February, 2007, when 329,979 tourists visited the Dominican Republic.

Jiménez said this has been the case for the past seven months; during January and February of 2008, some 725,238 non-resident travelers visited the country, a 91.4% increase from the same time period last year, according to a press release from the Ministry of Tourism.

The largest number of visitors, 13.9%, have been from Canada followed by the United States with 10% and Europe with 2.12%. Of the Europeans, the highest number of visitors were the Russians (9.3%), Belgians (7.2%) followed by the British (2.7%)

Another important piece of information is the growth of tourism from South America, up 39% during the past month of February as compared to February 2007 in addition to the 39.7% accumulated in the first two months of this year. Of this region, Argentine tourists increased 42% in February, Brazil 57%, Chile 66%, Colombia 62%, Ecuador 12%, Peru 50% and Venezuela 5.6%.

Germany, Holland and Italy, on the other hand, have had negative growth.

Hotel Occupancy

Given these positive results, the Tourism Ministry confirmed that this “is the best winter in the history of tourism in the Dominican Republic.” This has been confirmed by the large hotel occupancy in various touristic areas such as Punta Cana and Bayahíbe where occupancy is currently 100 percent.

The Central Bank report also named which airports had grown the most in terms of tourist arrivals: Las Américas (AILA), with 20%, Punta Cana (11.8%), Catey, from Samaná (8.4%), and La Unión, from Puerto Plata with 4.5%.

Jiménez pointed out that there has been notable growth, for the second month in a row, in Puerto Plata, due to a large degree to the more than $150 million dollars the current government has invested in the area.

He added that, during the four-year period between 2000 and 2004, the yearly average budget invested by SECTUR outside the country was $8.5 million dollars. Whereas the current government has invested $23 million dollars annually, nearly three times more than its predecessor.

Félix Jiménez, Dominican Minister of Tourism, accompanied by deputy secretaries Luis Simó, Magaly Toribio and Radhamés Martínez Aponte.