At the time, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, said that the Dominican Republic had broken tourist arrival records in the first quarter of this year with the visit of 2,076,171 people. What the official may have been unaware of at the time was that the figures also positioned the country among the countries, worldwide, with the best flow of tourists in that period.
According to the second UNWTO World Tourism Barometer of the year, prepared by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the sector showed a rapid recovery. Overall, international arrivals reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023.
An estimated 235 million tourists traveled internationally in the first three months. That figure is double the same period in 2022. Of particular note were the rates for Qatar (+98%), Saudi Arabia (+64%), Albania (+54%), Sint Maarten (+51%), and Ethiopia (+46%).
Other destinations enjoying double-digit growth this quarter were Bulgaria, Serbia (both +27%), El Salvador (+26%), Andorra (+23%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (+22%), Tanzania (+21%), Colombia (+18%), U.S. Virgin Islands (+17%), U.S. Virgin Islands (+17%), Colombia (+18%) and the United States Virgin Islands (+17%). (+17%), Morocco (+17% through February), Guatemala, Portugal, Turkey (all +14%), Honduras (+13%), San Marino (+12%), Dominican Republic (+11%) and Cyprus (+10%).
At the time, Collado stressed that “with that figure, we break even our own records, since we exceeded by 11% in 2019, 190% in 2021, and 21% in 2022″. In fact, the UNWTO cite that, according to available data, several destinations recovered tourist arrivals figures in 2022, compared to pre-pandemic statistics.
Some of these destinations are Albania, Andorra, Cape Verde, Colombia, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Liechtenstein, Qatar, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the United Arab Emirates.
They also indicate that Central America (98%), the Caribbean (94%), Western Europe (92%), and Northern Europe (91%) were very close to their Q1 2019 levels.
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