Non-resident travel to the DR in July was up 3.62%, maintaining the positive trend that began in May. The year began with January, February and April showing declines in travel, but there have been slight increases in May, June and July, reports the Central Bank statistics department. Travel in July was up 16,415 compared to the same month in 2012. There was a 4.48% increase in non-resident travelers.
The Central Bank says that for the first seven months of the year, non-resident travel to the island is up 0.81%, with 23,505 more visitors and a total of 2,931,103 tourists so far.
Travel from North and South America continues to grow, but travel from Central America, Asia and Europe is down. Most tourists visiting the Dominican Republic from January to July 2013 came from North America (60.42%), followed by Europe (24.58%) and South America (10.18%), Central America and the Caribbean (4.57%) and the rest of the world (0.25%).
Travel from the US continued strong, with 83,577 more tourists in the first seven months of the year. Tourism from Russia is also having a good year, with an increase of 16,072 more passengers compared to last year. Other countries showing increases in numbers of tourists traveling to the DR are Germany (up 12,697 travelers), Sweden (up 5,917 travelers) and the UK (up 3,895 travelers). There also were increases in travel from Chile (up 8,359), and Brazil (up 4,469 travelers).
63.6% of tourists traveling to the Dominican Republic entered via the Punta Cana International Airport, 18.80% arrived by Santo Domingo’s Las Americas, and 9.46% by the Puerto Plata International Airport.
www.bancentral.gov.do/publicaciones_economicas2.asp?docu=informe_turistico-Informe%20del%20Flujo%20Tur%EDstico&fecha=2013