With a loan portfolio that exceeded DR 105.5 billion (USD 1,824.5) at the end of 2023, Dominican banks played a fundamental role in the development of the tourism sector during the past year. These resources financed hotel projects and related businesses.
According to the preliminary version of the Annual Report on Banking and Tourism of the Superintendency of Banks (SB), the portfolio directed to this sector experienced a growth of 6.7% with respect to 2022.
As of December 2023, tourism received 10.6 % of the loans of the private commercial portfolio. Likewise, this line registers 20,494 unique debtors and 24,004 loans in the financial system, for an interannual increase of 5.5 % and 7.2 % respectively.
Segregating by interest rate in foreign currency, it is evident that tourism has a financing cost of 7.59 % per annum, versus 7.62 % for the rest of the private sector.
In terms of risk, it is the second lowest delinquency portfolio in the financial system, with only 0.17 % of the overdue debt. In addition, of the total capital owed in the tourism portfolio, approximately 23.1% is backed by collateral, which means that for every DR$ 1 of capital loaned in the system, there are DR$ 4.3 in collateral.
As a result, credit to this line of credit has been growing steadily, at an average nominal rate of 14.2% over the last five years.
When loans are segregated by type of currency, 87.9% of the tourism portfolio is denominated in U.S. dollars and represents 23.4% of the total foreign currency portfolio of the financial system.
Commercial banks have a 98% share of the tourism loan portfolio. In turn, 91% of tourism financing is concentrated in the three commercial banks with the largest number of assets.
The report highlights the importance of this sector in the economy, since hotels, bars and restaurants represent about 6.8% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employ 8.1% of the employed population in the DR.
Source: Presidencia.gob.do
