The Presidency announced President Luis Abinader would meet with honorary consul Ilona Oleksandrivna for Ukraine at 3:30pm on Wednesday, 2 March 2022.
The meeting will review measures being taken to assist Ukrainian tourists stranded in the Dominican Republic after flights to Ukraine were suspended following the Russian invasion.
So far, the Ukraine honorary consul Ilona Oleksandrivna is requesting that aid be sent to the Tony (Cabeza) Fernandez Foundation. She said that some 1,200 Ukrainian tourists need to find alternate accommodations and meet their expenses after their stays in resorts were completed and they do not have transport to return to Ukraine.
Likewise, the National Hotel & Tourism Association (Asonahores) and the Tourism Cabinet of the Abinader administration agreed hotels would give affected tourists 48 hours of free stay to find alternate accommodations.
In a statement, Asonahores said that the Tourism Cabinet has asked that hotels report in the next 24 hours on the specific situation of each of the Ukrainian guests that are affected. “While this process is being completed and the 48 hours are granted to the tourists, the government will investigate the migratory reality of these and the possibility of their departure from the Dominican Republic to other countries or if they are to remain in the nation in the long term,” explains Asonahores.
The situation affects less Russian tourists than Ukrainian tourists after Aeroflot announced a special repatriation flight to take their tourists back to Russia.
According to Ministry of Tourism statistics, Russia was the second most important source of tourists to the Dominican Republic in 2021 after the United States. Some 182,065 Russian travelers visited, and another 85,912 Ukrainian tourists in 2021.
Russian and Ukrainian tourists were traveling to Punta Cana, Samana and Puerto Plata. In January 2022, some 50,323 tourists arrived and another 10,456 from Ukraine. This was a third of the tourists from Europe, according to statistics of the Central Bank. These flights are now affected by the war situation in Ukraine.
Elizabeth Tovar, president of the local Tour Operator Association (Opretur), says the Russians and Ukrainians came on the same flights. There is much uncertainty regarding whether the flights can continue from Russia. So far, Aeroflot announced a repatriation flight this week.
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2 March 2022