New York Times looks into why the DR is a pandemic tourism success story

[Dolores]

Dominicans have celebrated The New York Times headline: “Why tourists like to come to the Dominican Republic”. The story by photojournalist Tony Cenicola was published on Saturday, 29 January 2022, while New Yorkers enduring one of the worst snow storms in years. The extensive feature looks into the impact the local management of the pandemic (relatively few deaths, dropping active cases and the number of cases) has had on the flow of tourists to the country. The country boasts more arrivals this January than in January 2020, before the pandemic in the Americas.

The Dominican Republic is the Caribbean tourism success story. Early on, the medical authorities decided the low density of its resorts and the beaches would reduce the number of tourists spreading the virus here. The government has never requested vaccine cards or PCR or antigen testing to enter. Travelers returning...

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[windeguy]

Another reason for success in tourism is that people from my home country are "moving on" and going on vacation with a pent up desire to get out again.
This is from the NY Times today:

In a Monmouth University poll released yesterday, 70 percent of Americans said they agreed with the statement, “It’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay, and we just need to get on with our lives.” A growing number of governors, from both parties, seem to agree, The Times reports. “The emergency is over,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, has said.​

 

[tee]

I will agree that January was a fantastic month for tourism and 2021 in a whole was exceptionally good. It has been a long time since I have seen Cabarete beach s busy and I have lived here for 18 years. Sosua restaurants are thriving once more. There are tourists everywhere which is a very welcome sight, especially as they are spending more money than before. And the real estate market is on fire, similar to back in 2007. Everyone I know that works in real estate are very busy with sales, and not just small sales, the average villa sale price is now close to 300K, which is up 25K from two years ago. Lets hope that this boom continues as this can also bring more infrastructure to our area of the North coast. I was in Santo Domingo a couple of weeks ago and visited most of the malls and also Ikea and Carrefour, they were all busy, people had money to spend (and I am talking about Dominicans now, not tourists). The economy is on the up and things are looking good for the country.

 

[windeguy]

tee, we were also surprised at the Covid Fleeing Tourist uptick. In our case, from Russia, Canada, France and Germany.

It has been a while since our apartments had to turn away customers in Cabarete, which means most of the Airbnb's were doing well in addition to ours.

 

[Gadfly]

Dominicans have celebrated The New York Times headline….
Which Dominicans? Tugboat crews? Celebrated how? Cake, music, dancing in the streets?

 

[MGD]

No testing, vaccination, or quarantine requirements to enter.
Plus they got rid of the ridiculous curfew, which I think was 12 noon at one point.