First quarter tourist travel to the Dominican Republic was up by 81,823 passengers, 4.6% more than in January-March 2018. Of the number of passengers, 61,838 were non-resident visitors. Arrivals totaled 1,876,144 travelers.
Travel from North America was up 8.2%, or 81,128 visitors more for the first quarter.
On the downside, travel from Europe declined 4%. Declines were reported for Germany (-7,591), Sweden (-4,368), United Kingdom (-4,293), Spain (-3,282, Portugal (-3,159), Belgium (-1,203) and Switzerland (-1,117). The declines are attributed to the strength of the US dollar compared to European currency.
Nevertheless, long haul travel to the country was up from Russia (+4,975), Poland (+2,380), Ukraine (+2,049), Italy (+1,099), Romania (+1,082).
Tourists are mainly coming from the United States, Canada and Mexico, with 65.1% of the total. This includes 40.9% that came from the United States.
21.6% came from Europe, 10.4% from South America, and 2.6% from Central America and the Caribbean.
66.4% of tourist arrivals landed at the Punta Cana International Airport, located near around 100 hotels and resorts on an extended 70-km beach strip. Dominican statistics show that 1,097,518 passengers flew into the Punta Cana airport. The next airport in number of arrivals was Las Americas, with 14.5%, and Puerto Plata, with 9.7% of arrivals.
Central Bank statistics reveal that 95.7% of the non-resident arrivals said they came for leisure, 1.3% for business. 94.9% would be staying at hotels. Of the total arrivals, 51.8% are ages 21-49. 53.2% are female and 46.8% male.
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Banco Central
7 May 2019