There were 3.77% more foreign tourist air arrivals to the Dominican Republic in the first eight months of the year, or 95,999 more than last year’s 2,641,386 tourists by August.
The Central Bank attributed the increase to new markets, namely South America. Travel from South America is up 76,049. This is said to be the result of promotional efforts by the Ministry of Tourism, airlines and tour operators.
Travel from North America (US and Canada) is up by 39,389 travelers. These increases compensated for the decline of 16,551 in European travelers. Nevertheless, travel from Russia reports a 25,296-pax increase.
The Central Bank says that in absolute terms, the countries that experienced the greater increases in arrivals by air during the period January-August 2011 were United States (32,838), Brazil (25,636), Russia (25,296) and Argentina (24,032).
When resident travel is included, air travel this year is up 3.0% compared to last year, according to the recent statistical update by the Central Bank.
Punta Cana International Airport continues to receive the largest number of tourist arrivals, with 1,598,850 visitors, or 60.53% of the total air arrivals. Traffic to Punta Cana was up 136,813 passengers during the period.
Others are Las Americas-SDQ (20.83%), Puerto Plata-POP (9.67%), Cibao-STI (3.73%), La Romana-LRM (3.16%). La Isabela (Santo Domingo) and El Catey (Samana) together accounted for the remaining 2.08%.
See www.bancentral.gov.do