The pace of airline ticket bookings for the Dominican Republic has improved considerably for summer 2021; the country now has just over 90% of the total bookings made in the summer of 2019, when there was no pandemic.
Meanwhile, bookings made to arrive in December 2021 exceed pre-covid-19 levels. These are signs that the “smokeless industry” is on the road to recovery and that the interest in visiting and getting to know Dominican attractions has reawakened in the issuing countries.
Google searches in the United States for Punta Cana and the Dominican Republic have already returned to pre-pandemic levels and searches for “Punta Cana” from Canada reached their post-pandemic peak last June.
Last June of this year, 468,367 non-residents arrived in the Dominican Republic, which represents an increase of 19.6% compared to May of the same year, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.
Minister David Collado assured yesterday at a press conference at the El Embajador hotel that for the first time in 14 months the influx of non-residents to the Dominican Republic exceeded 450,000 passengers, thus recovering 80% of the visitors who arrived before the covid-19 pandemic. Non-residents were divided into 405,643 tourists, plus 62,724 family visitors.
The figures indicate that between January and the first twenty days of June (almost six months) 1,903,474 tourists have cumulatively arrived in the country, representing 53.2% of the total arrivals registered between January and June. Of the 405,643 tourists, 346,299 were foreigners and 59,344 of Dominican origin. Commenting on the figures, Rafael Blanco Tejera, president of the Association of Hotels and Tourism of the Dominican Republic – Asonahores – emphasized that the goal is to recover tourism, based on the strategy of responsible tourism. From his point of view, tourism does not represent a health risk. In another part of his speech, the businessman emphasized that investments are being reestablished and cited the capital that will be placed in Pedernales, as well as in Miches and other points of the national geography.
Non-resident arrivals at the Santo Domingo and Santiago airports in June 2021 surpassed June 2019 records by 16 % and 31 % respectively. As for incoming flights to the Dominican Republic (as of June 20), there were 2,459 commercial flights, 69% of which were from the United States, 7% from Puerto Rico and 4% from Panama.
Air arrivals show a rise by month
When looking at arrivals by air of non-resident visitors, the behavior is as follows: In January 205,311 arrived, in February 198,487, in March 313,281, in April 327,074, in May 390,554 and in June 468,367.
In June 2021, the median stay of tourists was seven nights, driven mainly by the duration of U.S. tourists and by that registered in the most touristic area of the Dominican Republic.
