Italian arrivals to the Dominican Republic in 2005 were 133,954 with an 8% increase over the total for 2004, but still below the peak of 135,539 arrivals during 1999, 135,339 in 2000 and 135,293 in 2003. Arrivals to La Romana, where Italian-owned resorts such as Viva Wyndham Resorts and Gran Dominicus are located, made for 53.6% of total Italian arrivals, which increased by 36% last year. Arrivals to Las Americas International Airport (Santo Domingo) made up 25% of total arrivals, and were up by 9.5% last year.
Arrivals to Punta Cana International Airport, although comprising 16.7% of total arrivals, were down by 30.6% last year. This is probably because Punta Cana handled an unusually high number of arrivals headed for Dominicus beaches in La Romana in 2004, due to the problems with the Chavon bridge, following Hurricane Jeanne.
Traffic to Puerto Plata, which makes up about 4% of total Italian tourist arrivals, was down in 2005 compared to 2004, with a significant 28.5% drop.
Travel to the DR in 2005 includes thousands of tourists that were rerouted to Dominican beach destinations when Cancun hotels were damaged due to Hurricane Wilma.