Through November, the Dominican Republic has posted less than a 1% growth rate for the year. According to the World Tourism Organization Barometer report, growth in the DR Jan-Nov was 0.7%, which falls below the 1% growth for the Caribbean sub-region as a whole, despite posting a 4.5% growth rate for the first half of the year. While enjoying a strong first half of the year, travel to the DR declined considerably in the second half of the year, after posting a 10% growth for the first two quarters. Travel began to decline in July (-3.6%), August (-2.0%), September (-10%), October (-11%) and November (-5.8%) showed declines coinciding with the heightening of the global financial crisis. WTO says its experts forecast that airline capacity cuts (as airlines have parked planes with high operational costs), fluctuating exchange rates and the weak US economy are the main reasons affecting travel stats to the Caribbean. South American and Central American destinations fared much better, indicating there is new competition for US travelers who have chosen not to travel to Europe.
In August 2008, the Fernandez administration appointed a new Minister of Tourism who has responded by doubling the advertising budget, launching a new campaign, The DR Has It All, and increasing the number of tourism offices in important source markets, to wade out the present crisis.
WTO says that the strongest source markets are Canada, Russian Federation, Norway, Ireland, India, Brazil, Malaysia, South Africa, the Ukraine, Hungary, Egypt and Bulgaria that recorded double-digit increases in local currencies in expenditure on tourism abroad through September 2008.
See www.bancentral.gov.do