The Central Bank has released statistics for the travel market for April 2016 showing that travel is again up 4.9%, compared to 3.8% in April 2015. There were 22,835 more travelers visiting this April, compared to last year. Non-resident travelers included 12,942 additional travelers. From April-to-April, the increase in foreign visitors was up 5%.
The Central Bank attributes the increase to the strong economy in source countries as well as promotion strategies implemented by the Ministry of Tourism that have contributed to consolidating the leadership position of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean.
Travel to the country is now at 2,089,226 visitors for the first four months of the year. This is 127,862 more travelers than for January-April 2015 for an overall 6.5% increase. Of the increase, the Central Bank reports that 75.7% are foreign tourists (96,840 passengers) and 24.3% are Dominicans living abroad (31,022 passengers).
Air arrivals during the first four months of the year were 2,268,481, or 7.1% compared to last year, or 149,606 more passengers.
In April 2016, North American tourists (United States, Canada and Mexico) make up 62.3% (264,091 passengers) of all travelers to the country, followed by Europe with 21.3% (90,288 passengers), South America with 12.7% (53,783 passengers), and Central America and the Caribbean with 3.5% (14,765 tourists). US travel is up 4.9% during this period.
The Central Bank report observes that South American travel is also up significantly, with a 15.3% growth. Main source countries are Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay and Peru.
Punta Cana continues to be the main port of entry for tourists, with 65.3% of air arrivals (1,209,246 passengers), followed by Las Americas (Santo Domingo) with 296,474 passengers, Puerto Plata (195,695 passengers), Cibao (60,081 pax), La Romana (51,111 pax), El Catey (Samana) with 35,993, and La Isabela (Santo Domingo) with 2,363 passengers.
