The United States and Canada travelers made up 54.5% of the total foreign tourist arrivals to the Dominican Republic during the first four months of the year. Europeans are in second place with 40.9%. From South American came another 2.6% of the total arrivals.
The United States continues to be the leading source market for travel to the Dominican Republic with 29.4% of the total foreign air arrivals. For the first four months of 2004, some 324,629 tourists came from the US, 8.7% more than for the same period last year. Canadian travel at 272,111 made up for 24.7% of all foreign tourist arrivals. Canadian arrivals for January-April were up 6.3%.
Regarding European source markets, growth markets for the first four months of the year were France, up 10.6% (from 127,091 in 2003 to 140,503 in 2004); Spain, up 36.6% (from 42,451 in 2003 to 57,996 in 2004); the United Kingdom up 61.4% (from 34,594 in 2003 to 55,842 in 2004); Holland, up 82.2% (from 10,541 in 2003 to 19,210 in 2004); and Sweden, up 270% (from 1,234 in 2003 to 4,566 in 2004). German travel declined 8.7% (down from 85,674 in 2003 to 78,213 in 2004), and as did Italian travel, which dropped 11.5%, from 56,147 travelers to 49,684 in 2004 for the first four months of the year.
The main tourist source markets in Europe are France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and Italy.