The Central Bank says that arrivals in December were 490,019 non-resident visitors, up 10.1%, or 45,011 more tourists when compared to last year. The year closed with total arrivals of 4,689-770 non-resident passengers, which is 127,164 more tourists than last year, or up 2.8%. Foreign non-resident tourists were up 3.6%, with an additional 141,061 travelers, for a total of 4,064,754 foreign visitors. Travel through Punta Cana International, the airport that handles the majority of passengers in the country, was up 13.9% in December. Overall, 2,584,871 visitors arrived by that port of entry, for 63.6% of all non-resident foreign arrivals.
For 2013, the number of non-resident and resident arrivals was 5,163,682, which was up 116,661 visitors compared to 2012, for a 2.3% increase.
Most tourists come from the United States and Canada, with travel up from these destinations 11.1% in December 2013. Overall for 2013, US and Canadian traffic was up 139,369 visitors. Venezuela (+4,031), Argentina (+2,37) and Brazil (+1,772) also sent more tourists than ever in December. This was 21,620 more in 2013.
Europe showed a slight improvement with an increase of 8,599 tourists, a significant number when compared to the decline of 2,673 passengers in 2012. There were more travelers from Germany (3,884), Russia (2,214), the United Kingdom (1,716) and Ukraine (1,256), among others.
The countries showing the greatest growth in tourist arrivals were: United States (+143,923), Germany (29,700), Russia (20,808), Chile (13,120), Brazil (11,377) and the UK (10,224).
Punta Cana continues to be the airport of choice for most tourists, with 2,584,871 or 63.6% of all foreign arrivals. This was followed by Las Americas with 800,218 passengers or 19.7%, Puerto Plata with 353,857 passengers or 8.7%, Cibao 168,446 passengers with 4.2% and La Romana with 91,481 passengers or 2.2%. Samana’s Catey received 54,126 passengers and La Isabela handled 11,755.