The Ministry of Tourism reports that the Dominican Republic has received 1.1 million tourists in the first two months of the year. The Ministry of Tourism reports that in February, 566,235 tourists arrived. The flow of tourists maintains the recovery trend begun in September 2021.
Tourism Minister David Collado presented the statistics. He was accompanied by Deputy Minister Jaqueline Mora and the president of the National Hotel & Restaurant Association (Asonahores), Rafael Blanco Tejera.
Collado explained that the Dominican Republic has accumulated more than 1.1 million tourists in just two months. The arrivals are up from the first year of recovery. In February 2021, 400,000 tourists arrived.
“Tourist flow levels have returned to pre-pandemic levels in the Dominican Republic, at a time when most destinations in Central America and the Caribbean are not even close to achieving such a recovery,” said Collado. He explained that this is evidence that the measures taken by the Tourism Cabinet have been the right ones and we are on the right track.
Meanwhile, Vice Minister Jaqueline Mora explained that of the non-residents who visited the country, some 474,000 were foreigners and 92,000 Dominican expats. Of these, 60% were from North America, 30% from Europe, 9% from Latin America and 1% from the rest of the world.
Collado said that 6 out of 10 tourists stayed in hotels. Hotels posted an average occupancy of over 75%, with 7 nights per tourist. Romana/Bayahibe had the highest occupancy with over 90% average, followed by Bávaro-Punta Cana with 79% and Sosua and Cabarete with 72%.
In February 2022, 4,300 flights of 130 different airlines arrived. Punta Cana International Airport was the busiest of all airports. The La Romana international airport showed the most growth.
Meanwhile, 93 cruise operations were registered by sea, with 169,000 non-residents arriving on cruises. The main seaport of entry was Amber Cove, in Maimon, Puerto Plata.
Nevertheless, starting March 2022, the country will see a drop of around 65,000 tourists due to the cancellation of direct flights from Russia and Ukraine. According to Central Bank tourism statistics source, in January, 49,215 Russian tourists had arrived and 13,749 had come from Ukraine.
Read more in Spanish:
Acento
8 March 2022