Dominican tourism continues to strengthen its recovery process and reach record figures with the arrival of almost three million visitors in the first five months of the year, as reported by the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, who announced on Wednesday that, yet again, the month of May saw an unprecedented number of tourists with 561,323 arrivals.
In his monthly press conference announcing the results of the industry’s performance Collado explained that: “This means that we registered a growth of 11% above May 2018, 6% more than in 2019 and 44% more than May of last year.”
He affirmed that the recovery and growth of tourism is such that, in the last twelve months, the country received the arrival of 6,459,738 non-resident visitors.
He reported that, in the month of May, saw the unprecedented arrival of 561,323 non-residents visitors. “453,371 of the arrivals in May were foreigners, which is 2% more than in 2019 and 4% above the same month in 2018.”
The month of May also registered a growth in the arrival of cruise passengers reaching the figure of 82,199, 3% more than the same month in 2019.
Breakdown of tourist arrivals
71% of non-residents come from North America and the Caribbean, and 16% from Europe. 62% of the visitors in May were between 18 and 49 years old. Viewed by segment, 27% of foreign tourists were adventurous, 29% adult, 27% family and 17% senior. Six out of 10 tourists stayed in hotels.
With average stays of 9 nights, the estimated generation of foreign exchange derived from tourist spending amounts to US$ 640 million.
60% of this month’s influx of visitors entered through the airport of Punta Cana, 24% through Las Americas, 13% through Santiago, 2% through Puerto Plata, 1% through the airports of La Romana and Samaná.
Airspace
Preliminary estimates from the Ministry of Tourism suggest that the total number of incoming commercial flights to the Dominican Republic in May 2022 was 4,675 flights, with an occupancy of 80% on more than 200 routes, which connected us with 128 cities through 125 different airlines.
Hotel activity
In May 2022, the occupancy rate of hotel rooms rose 68%, which represents an improvement of 19 percentage points compared to May 2021.
Guests were 86% of foreign origin. There was an improvement in occupancy in most tourist areas compared to 2021, highlighting the areas of Bayahibe – La Romana and Bavaro – Punta Cana, where both areas rose by more than 20 percentage points compared to 2021.
Other areas such as Greater Santo Domingo and Santiago rose by less than 10 percentage points La Romana – Bayahíbe area had the highest occupancy growth with an occupancy of 83% in 2022 and 55% in 2021.
Source:
Infotur Dominicano
