Italians generally rate us well as a tourist destination. In 2022 only 0.8% of those who came in the second quarter of the year said they did not meet their expectations of the Dominican Republic.
The latest initiative to reconquer Europe for Dominican tourism made by Tourism Minister David Collado and Deputy Minister Jacqueline Mora, in addition to Germany and England included Italy, a traditional market in which we planted anchors in the 1990s, the decade in which the Dominican Republic set in motion all the engines of its new tourism machinery.
In 1999, the year that closed the initial cycle of modern tourism development in our country, we received 1.2 million European tourists, 56% of the total number of international tourists. At that time Europe was the dominant market, as opposed to North America, which was taking flight and closed the last century by sending 717,352 tourists to our country, 33% of the total received by air.
Italy ended the decade of the nineties with over 100,000 tourists per year. In 1999 we received 135,539 Italians, which represented 6.3% of the total. The years 2000-2010 was a period of ups and downs, but always above 100 thousand tourists, with more than 135 thousand in 2000, more than 118 thousand in 2001, more than 113 thousand in 2002, we exceeded 135 thousand again in 2003, to fall a little in 2004 and 2005 and grow to 144,115 in 2006 and 148,808 in 2007. Then we closed the cycle of the decade in decline to remain at 121,317 in 2009.
The new cycle began with 100,052 Italian tourists in 2010, 8.8% of the European tourists we received and 2.8% of the 3.5 million international tourists that visited us, of which 32.4% of the 3.5 million that arrived came from Europe. In 2011 more than 104 thousand arrived, in 2012 we dropped to more than 95 thousand and in the years 2013-2018 we stayed above 80 thousand. In 2019 we exceeded 92 thousand and discounting the 2020-2021 crisis, in 2022 we received 87,553.
In the period 2009-2022, we received 1,163,133 tourists from Italy, which shows that despite the loss of clients, that market maintained an appreciable level of importance. In those years Europe was largely surpassed by North America, which became the origin of more than 50% of our tourists, but remained important because it contributed 27% of the tourists, of which 10% came from Italy.
Italians generally rate us well as a tourist destination. In 2022 only 0.8 % of those who came in the second quarter of the year said they did not meet their expectations of the Dominican Republic. More than 90% of them said they would visit this tourist destination again.
Their evaluation of tourism services and facilities was also positive. 23.6 % rated them as excellent, 41.5 % as very good, 31.3 % as good. Acceptable 2.6 %, average 0.2 %, and no one gave us a very bad rating. Italy is a great market for us.
Source: Acento.com.do
