The Dominican Republic experienced a record year of tourism with 6,187,542 non-resident air arrivals in 2017, that translates into a 4% increase over the 5,959,347 non-resident arrivals in 2016, according to statistics kept by the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.
The peak months for non-resident arrivals were July with 637,663 arrivals and December with 626,755. May was the slowest month for tourism with 472,888 arrivals by air.
Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) lead in air arrivals with 3,643,488 (59%), followed by Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo (SDQ) with 1,348,014 arrivals (22%), Santiago’s Cibao International Airport (STI) with 548,081 arrivals (9%), Gregorio Luperón International Airport in Puerto Plata (POP) with 472,705 arrivals (7.6%), and El Catey International Airport (AZS) in Samaná with 69,366 (1%).
The Ministry of Tourism has also reported that 1,546,444 visitors arrived by sea in 2017, up 37.45% compared to the same period in 2016. This makes for a total of almost 8 million tourist arrivals in 2017.
Read more in Spanish:
Central Bank statistics
16 January 2018
