Last week, Minister of Tourism David Collado was in Paris for IFTM Top Resa 2025 to promote the Dominican Republic and sign new agreements to recover the French travel to Dominican destinations. The Dominican Republic was the guest country for the 2025 French tourism booking event.
During Top Resa, the president of Air Caraïbes, Marc Rochet, announced two weekly flights from Orly International in Paris to El Catey International Airport in Samana. The new route will start this coming winter.
Minister Collado said this is an important step to attract more French tourists.
The Ministry of Tourism went all out with the delegation explaining its objective is to get the French to again focus on traveling to the DR. He said French tourism has dropped from an average of 225,000 tourists to 144,000 in 2024.
Collado is hopeful the DR will be able to boost French travel to 250,000 by the end of 2026. French tourists spend an average of 11 days in the country and generate around US$161 million annually, according to Collado.
Collado also said that Air Caraibes would add another weekly flight to Punta Cana, increasing its frequencies to eight a week to Punta Cana International Airport by January 2026 at the latest. The airline also has three weekly flights to Santo Domingo’s Las Americas International Airport.
The Punta Cana airport serves tourists headed to several beach destinations – Cap Cana, Punta Cana, Bavaro, Cortecito, Arena Gorda, Uvero Alto, Macao and Miches. Miches the the northernmost beach area on the east coast, about one hour and a half from the Punta Cana International Airport.
At the Top Resa, Collado highlighted the attractions of Miches, the new beach destination. He also spoke about Punta Cana, Samana (Las Terrenas), and the Colonial City in Santo Domingo, all popular destinations with French travelers.
Collado mentioned that decades ago the French had come to Terrenas as tourists and decided to migrate there permanently. He said the French have left their mark on the Samana cuisine.
In addition to securing the Air Caraibes flights, the Ministry of Tourism has also secured the return of Air France. Early this summer, Air France had already announced it would once again fly to Punta Cana nonstop.
While Air Caraibes will be flying out of Orly International Airport (ORY), Air France will be using the Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG) for its flights.
Air France has announced nonstop service between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic starting on 13 January 2026. The seasonal route will operate three times a week—Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays—through 28 March 2026 using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
Flight schedule (local time):
AF968: departs Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 2:25pm, arrives in Punta Cana at 6:45pm.
AF969: departs Punta Cana at 9:05pm, arrives in Paris-Charles de Gaulle at 10:30am the next day.
Punta Cana is Air France’s sixth destination in the Caribbean, alongside Cayenne (French Guiana), Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), Fort-de-France (Martinique), Saint Martin, and Havana (Cuba).
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DR1 News
30 September 2025