In a context in which the global tourism industry continues to strive to surpass the tourism flows of three years ago -before the pandemic’s lag for the sector-, the Dominican Republic is working to continue positioning itself in Latin America and the Caribbean. This performance has already added 7,668.9 million dollars to the treasury in the first semester of this year.
From the statistics published by the Central Bank in this regard, it can be seen that the present foreign currency collection brings the country 58.8% closer to the 13,031 million dollars generated by this sector in taxes alone.
This amount is the highest collected in the last five years – 15.7% higher than in 2019, when it was only 10,986.6 million dollars-.
2,596 million pesos
Tourist card
Tourist card collections in January-June reached 2,596 million pesos, representing 33.85 % of the total contributed to the treasury.
The monetary entity shows that 64.32% of these collections came from the tax on the departure of passengers abroad through ports and airports, a trend that promises to remain favorable at the end of 2023.
Data from the Ministry of Tourism show that, as of September 10, 43,490 commercial flights arrived in the country, 11% more than last year, which transported some 5,713,665 passengers.
Added to this is the arrival of cruise ship tourism, which has brought more than 1.5 million visitors to this destination this year, boosting activity in the ports of Amber Cove and Taíno Bay, in Puerto Plata, as well as those of Samaná, Santo Domingo and La Romana.
The boom and growth – which hardly rounded one million tourists by sea in previous years – has accelerated the government’s goal for the tourism sector to end 2023 with a flow of at least 10 million visitors.
In terms of the treasury, this tourist flow also has an impact on the income from tourist cards, which in the first semester of this year amounted to 2,596.4 million dollars, according to the Central Bank, equivalent to 33.85% of the income collected.
More Latin Americans
In spite of the fact that this year Europe has slowed down the emission of tourists to the country by more than 40% due to the geopolitical and economic conflicts it is going through, the market provided by the American continent has been strengthened with the opening of new air routes to South America.
This has already had a growth rate of 70.1 % in the last two and a half years.
This has influenced the fact that, of the 15 countries that lead the issuance of tourists to the Dominican Republic in the last weeks, seven of them are Latin American.
Tourism data show that Colombia is placed behind the United States (48.4%) and Canada (8.19%) as the third country from which most traveled to Quisqueya, with a presence of 6.22%.
Puerto Rico was in sixth place, being the country of residence of 3.07 % of tourists; Argentina in seventh place, with 2.97 %; and Brazil in tenth place, with 2.06 %.
Other countries that stood out in the issuance of tourists are: Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Mexico.
Overnight stays in Romana
The hotel occupancy rate averaged 64.6 % in the last nine months, being La Romana-Bayahibe the place with the highest effective rate of 74.3 %.
The hotels in Bávaro-Punta Cana followed, with an occupancy rate of 71.6 %. Puerto Plata is the third destination where tourists choose to spend the night, with 54.7%, followed by Santo Domingo (52.9%), Samaná (52.1%), Santiago (51.8%) and Boca Chica (47.9%).
Global recovery continues
Data from the World Tourism Organization
The World Tourism Organization reports that international tourism is still recovering “from the worst crisis in its history” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Between January-July, the global tourist flow barely exceeded 84 % of the total reached in the same period of 2019, with 700 million tourists.
Source:
