International tourist arrivals to the Dominican Republic were up 9.42% during the first seven months of the year, according to a recent report released by the Central Bank. Some 237,002 more tourists arrived this year than last. Foreign tourist arrivals are up 10.8%, breaking the two-million tourist mark for half year. The Ministry of Tourism has forecast there will be four million international arrivals this year.
The Central Bank attributes the sustained growth in arrivals to the increase in investment in hotels and promotion of the country by both the private and public sectors. This has resulted in an increase in flights from the main source countries.
Central Bank statistics show that the first seven month arrivals in 2003 were 1,693,486, in 2004 they were 1,819,603, in 2005 some 1,960,393 tourists visited and in 2006 the number is 2,172,038.