The year had started out as usual, with a significant increase in travelers in January 2025. In January 2025, a new record for the month was hit with 1,155,484 visitors, up 53% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, 22% compared to 2023 and 8% compared to 2024. The numbers also reflected the strong maritime tourism numbers. Air arrivals were 759,929 tourists, with cruise ship tourists reaching a high 395,555.
Yet for the first time in four years, when reviewing the monthly statistics, Tourism Minister was not able to announce another record in travel arrivals. Tourist air arrivals in February 2025 were 588,212, down 9.85% compared to the 652,487 visitors in February 2024.
It is important to take into consideration that 2024 was an out-of-the-ordinary year because, as occurred in 2023, it accumulated the thousands of vacations people who had postponed vacationing in 2020, 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
Other reasons cited are the ongoing wars and the disruptive measures of the new Trump administration.
The Ministry of Tourism’s System of Tourism Intelligence (Situr) reported that 510,770 tourists came from the Americas in February 2025, 141,717 less than in the same month in 2024. This was a significant 21.71% drop.
European tourism also declined in February with a 25.2% decrease when compared to 2024, or 75,305 in Feb 2025 to 100,804 in 2024. The decline is attributed to the continuing of the Ukraine and Russia war, and economic uncertainties.
Overall, February 2025 stats register 588,212 non-resident tourist arrivals for a 9.85% drop compared to the same month in February 2024, when 755,832 tourists arrived, or 167,620 less.
The Ministry of Tourism did not report separately the numbers for March 2025, nor have these statistics been uploaded to the Situr site online. The Ministry of Tourism chose to present instead the first quarter statistics, indicating that from January to March 2025, the DR received 2,334,562 tourists, a 0.6% drop when compared to the first quarter in 2024. This translates to 13,837 less visitors.
Cruise ship travel continues strong. Overall, cruise ship travel reached 3,348,716 visitors, up 3.8% when compared to the 3,225,485 of the same month in 2024. The Ministry of Tourism reports that from January to March 2025, the country received 1,027,991 cruise ship travelers, or 15.3% more than in 2024, taking into account the tourists who were here for an average of eight hours before embarking for their next destination.
Read more in Spanish:
Ministry of Tourism
System of Tourism Intelligence (Situr)
Listin Diario
Acento
Arecoa
El Dinero
22 April 2025