Central Bank travel statistics for August 2019 again reflect the decline in tourism from the United States. Travel to the Dominican Republic this year is up but 0.4%, very different from the 5%+ increases of previous years.
The Central Bank explains that Dominican expat visits were up 14.8% (91,141 travelers), but non-resident foreigner travel was down 1.8%, or 71,154 fewer visitors than from January to August 2018. Overall tourism in 2018 for the first eight months of the year was 4,644,049 and this year it is at 4,664,036 non-resident visitors.
The good news is that stats for August show the decline in travel has slowed down. While in July travel was down 11.2%, by August, the drop had declined to 7.5%. In August, 497,390 non-resident visitors are reported, or 40,185 fewer air passengers than for the same month in 2018.
Travelers from the United States, Canada and Mexico make up 61.9% of all non-resident tourists coming to the country by air. Travelers from Europe are 21.6%, from South America 12% and from Central America and the Caribbean 0.4%.
The Central Bank attributes the lull in travel to the media campaign on unfortunate events affecting US tourists at hotels in the country in the first half of the year. The negative buzz resulted in the cancellations of thousands of US tourist vacation plans to the Dominican Republic.
Last week, during the 33rd Hotel & Tourism Association Trade Exhibition in Punta Cana, spokespeople for tourism in Punta Cana said the area is making a comeback. Ernesto Veloz of the Eastern Tourism Association (AsoEste) said that most of the cancellations had affected bookings for conventions.
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Banco Central
17 September 2019