Tourism Minister David Collado affirmed that the sector has fully recovered, after revealing that during the month of March the country received 617,756 non-resident visitors, 229% above the same month of 2019 and 197% more than the same period of the previous year.
“Eighty-four percent of these non-resident visitors are of foreign origin, and the remaining 16% of Dominican origin. With this result, the first quarter of 2022 closes at 1,714,947 non-residents, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic,” the official showed when presenting the figures during a press conference at the Ambassador Hotel in the capital.
As part of this good performance, Minister Collado also predicted that this year will close with a record annual arrival of more than seven million tourists.
“Today I can say here today, with full confidence, that tourism in the Dominican Republic has fully recovered and that it is strong, solid and mature,” said Collado as he showed the statistical data together with the Technical Vice Minister, Jacqueline Mora.
Tourist arrivals in detail
Minister Collado said that 71% of the non-residents who visited the country came from North America and the Caribbean, and 19% from Europe.
53% of the month’s visitors were between 21 and 49 years old. Viewed by segment, 23% of foreign tourists were adventurous, 29% adult, 32% family and 16% senior. Six out of 10 tourists stayed in hotels.
With average stays of 7 nights, the estimated generation of foreign exchange derived from tourist spending amounts to US$ 690 million.
Sixty-one percent of this month’s influx of visitors entered through Punta Cana airport, 22% through Las Americas, 10% through Santiago, 5% through Puerto Plata, 1% through La Romana, and the remainder through Samana airport.
Tourist satisfaction during March 2022 was 4.4 out of 5 stars and 93% of those surveyed stated that they would return to the Dominican Republic. Eighty-seven percent of those surveyed have high satisfaction with Dominican beaches.
Airspace
Preliminary estimates from the Ministry of Tourism suggest that total inbound commercial flights to the Dominican Republic in March 2022 were 5,100 flights, with an occupancy rate of 76% on more than 200 routes, connecting us to 159 cities through 160 different airlines.
Hotel activity
In March 2022, 9 out of every 10 hotel rooms remained in operation, and of these, 72% were occupied. Guests were 90% of foreign origin. The recovery of the hotel industry has been a generalized phenomenon in all areas of the country, improving between 40 and 10 percentage points, the occupancy of rooms in the different tourist areas of the country showed a visible improvement with respect to March 2021. This list is headed by Romana – Bayahibe whose hotel occupancy was 85% vs 41% in March 2021.
Maritime arrivals
In the first month of 2022, 111,731 unique cruise passengers (excluding cabotage) and 1,497 ferry passengers were received. Considering crew and cabotage, maritime arrivals to the Dominican Republic in March 2022 were 207,934 passengers, in 97 operations through 68 cruise ships (from 38 different cruise lines) and 14 ferries.
Maritime operations were distributed in Amber Cove (25%), Taino Bay (25%), La Romana (22%), Catalina Island (6%), Samana (6%), and the rest in Santo Domingo (18%).
Estimates 2022
Air ticket bookings made for travel to the Dominican Republic during the remainder of 2022 are 8.9% above bookings made at this same date in 2019.
“For the full year, more than 7 million non-residents are expected to arrive. The next quarters would considerably surpass the 2019 records,” said Minister Collado.
