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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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). <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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, … <\/p>\n