2019 was a bad year for Dominican tourism, and the stats show this. The bad press after media coverage of several US tourists that died in the Dominican Republic in mid-2019 had the same effect as a nasty tropical storm. The US FBI would confirm the tourists died from natural causes, but the damage was done. The Dominican Republic had its first decline in travelers in more than a decade.
Central Bank stats indicate that in 2019 non-resident air arrivals were 6,446,036 air arrivals. This is 122,852 fewer visitors than in 2018, or a decline of 1.9%. The decline was not more because more Dominican expats visited. Indeed non-resident Dominican travel to the country was up 14.5% (138,090 more visitors), compensating for the lull in foreign visitors. In 2019, 260,942 fewer tourists traveled to the country than in 2018.
A large number of canceled flights, meetings and general bookings affected Dominican hotels. It would not be until the fall that recovery began to be felt from the decline in bookings. In the meantime, the situation worsened for the tourism industry after baseball legend, David Ortiz was shot at in a Santo Domingo East bar and lounge. Investigators.
The Central Bank forecasts that it will still take until the second semester of 2020 for the country to recover its growth trend in tourism.
Non-resident travel to the Dominican Republic in December 2019 was 624,269, 34,740 fewer visitors (down 5.3%) compared to December 2018.
58.4% of tourists visiting the Dominican Republic came from North America (United States, Canada and Mexico). Another 23.6% of visitors traveled from Europe, 13% from South America and 4.3% from Central America and the Caribbean. Travel during 2019 from North America was down 4.6%, equivalent to 151,744 fewer visitors from the United States (-148,265) and Canada (-12,484). Economic conditions in South America and Europe also affected travel to the Dominican Republic. Travel from Europe was down 66,616 passengers (-5.0%) and from South America was down 47,951 air arrivals (-6.3%). Travel from Puerto Rico was up by 5,425 visitors.
Punta Cana International Airport continues to lead in number of arrivals. In 2019, some 3,476,451 tourists arrived via that airport. Las Americas (SDQ) was second, with 954,984. Puerto Plata’s Gregorio Luperón International Airport was third, with 389,706 arrivals to the north coast airport. Cibao International in Santiago received 242,837 air arrivals. La Romana received 193,020 air arrivals. El Catey International Airport in Samaná received 81,868 air arrivals. La Isabela International Airport in northern Santo Domingo received 18,753 arrivals.
59.% of tourists visiting the Dominican Republic were ages 21 to 49 years old. 54.1% of visitors were women. 92.9% of those visiting said they stayed at hotels. 94.6% said they came for leisure.