The President of the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (ASONAHORES), Rafael Blanco Canto, yesterday released the final statistics of his organization on tourism in the DR during 1998. He cited the statistics during a presentation to the Caribbean-U.S. Forum on Investment and Trade. According to ASONAHORES: (a) 2.3 million tourists came to the DR in 1998, 97,745 more than in 1997, a rise of 4.4%; (b) the majority (1.3 million, or 56.7%) of tourists were from Europe, followed by 23.3% (533,900) from the U.S., 9.1% (209,300) from Canada, 8.7% (200,100) from Latin America and 2.4% (42,320) from "other nations"; (c) the room occupancy rate dropped from 76% in 1997 to 73% in 1998, primarily because of the 10.1% leap in the number of rooms on offer (and the impact of Hurricane Georges).
