The Dominican Republic registered the arrival of 626,010 tourists last April, which is a record figure for this month, with a growth of 7% compared to April 2019, the Ministry of Tourism reported on Tuesday.
In the first quarter, there is a 4.8% decrease in tourist arrivals compared to 2019, although this figure represents an increase of 124% compared to the same period in 2021, when Dominican tourism was in the process of recovering after the pandemic.
Offering these figures, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, stressed that they are the best results of the sector for an April, being the first in which more than 600,000 arrivals have been registered, with a generation of foreign exchange of more than 700 million dollars.
The number of foreign tourists in the month was 513,195, which represents a growth of 2% compared to April 2019, to which we must add 112,815 non-resident Dominicans, whose arrival was 76% higher than April 2019. These data are the result of the reactivation of the Canadian, British and German markets, which have compensated for the fall in tourists from Ukraine and Russia, due to the Russian invasion of the neighboring country.
The United States continues to be the main issuer, with 37% of the total and an increase of 9% compared to 2019; and highlights the increase in visitors from Colombia, of 108% compared to April 2019, which represents 4% of the total this year.
Also the occupation of the tourist areas has improved “notoriously”, going from 48% to 79% in the poles of Bávaro-Punta Cana, while in La Romana-Bayahíbe the increase was from 48% to 85% occupancy.
Collado also highlighted the increase in the arrival of cruise passengers in April, with 129,440 people arriving through the different ports that operate in Puerto Plata, La Romana and Samaná. The official predicted that this year will close with the historic figure of more than 7 million tourists, which will surpass the record of 6.5 million non-resident travelers, registered in 2018. (EFE)
