The Dominican Republic is on its way to a record year for tourist arrivals. The forecast is for 2015 to end with the arrival of more than 5.6 million tourists.
The Central Bank reports that in October, travel was up 14.5%, after a peak 16.7% in September. Travel over the past 12 months is up 14.9% overall.
The Central Bank reports that 4,592,854 passengers, including foreigners and non-resident visitors, arrived by air. A total of 378,090 more travelers have visited so far this year compared to 2014, or 9% more.
Of the total increase, 79.7% (301,255 passengers) were foreign tourists while 20.3% were non-resident Dominicans (76,835).
The Central Bank attributes the increase to improvements in source country economies, as well tourism promotion work by the Dominican government and private sector. Recent deals with tour operators and increases in flight capacity can also take part of the credit, says the Central Bank.
The leading source markets are the United States and Canada, with a 10.1% increase in travelers. Travel is also up significantly from South America, with 23.6%.
Travel from Europe is down, due to declines in Russian arrivals. Nevertheless, some speculate that fears of terrorism in Egypt could divert many Russian tourists to the Dominican Republic, reversing the negative trend.
The Central Bank reports that Punta Cana International Airport, the main access airport for tourists headed to the Punta Cana beach resorts, received 66.3% of all tourists, with a 9.8% increase. This was followed by Las Americas International in Santo Domingo with 18.4% and Puerto Plata’s Gregorio Luperon International Airport with 7.7%.
http://www.bancentral.gov.do/publicaciones_economicas/informe_turistico/informe_turistico2015-10.pdf