Who says travel isn’t back? Not the Dominican Republic.
The top sun destination announced this week it just recorded the best month of SEP in terms of visitation in its entire tourism history.
Last month, 365,544 non-resident visitors entered the country. That’s 14 per cent higher than pre-pandemic visitation in SEP 2019 - and 25 per cent better than 2020’s figures. And it represents over USD $400 million in tourism revenues for the island nation.
Already to date in 2021, at 3.3 million, arrivals exceed visitor stats for all of 2020.
Minister of Tourism, David Collado notes in a media release that in line with peaking arrivals numbers, hotel activity has also reached its pre-pandemic peak. 87 per cent of rooms are in operation, with an occupancy rate of 54 per cent on weekdays and 61 per cent on weekends. Less than a quarter of hotel clients are locals, highlighting the country’s success at attracting returning international visitors.
So far, the top four countries with residents visiting the Dominican Republic do not include Canada. Right now they are the U.S., Russia, Spain and Columbia.
In SEP, nearly 4,000 commercial flights landed in the DR, operated by 87 airlines from 43 countries.
Cruises also played a factor in visitation levels. Over 22,000 of the month’s arrivals were by cruise ship on 10 cruises calling in three different DR ports.
The Dominican Republic tourism ministry says the country is on track to see similar patterns through the remainder of the year. OCT arrivals are expected to exceed pre-pandemic numbers of the same month in 2019 as well.
In addition, airline ticket reservations for OCT to DEC 2021 are already 12 to 20 per cent higher than the same period in 2019.
It's a feat that tourism stakeholders are proud of. Officials are calling the figures a “rebound” in the country’s tourism recovery trajectory.
For more information about travel to the Dominican Republic, advisors are encouraged to visit www.godominicanrepublic.com
