The Dominican Republic achieved its estimated goal for the just ended year 2022 of receiving more than 7 million tourists by air, and of recovering and growing the sector in the midst of the global crisis that affects all nations.
In a press conference held yesterday by the Ministry of Tourism in which the visit of 7 million 165 thousand 387 tourists to the country in the past year was reported, President Luis Abinader assured that the Dominican Republic is and will continue to be the preferred destination for tourists and, for these reasons, this 2023 will be the best year in the history of tourist activity and 2024 will be the one that will exceed the other figures.
By offering the data on the behavior of tourism during 2022, the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, reported that during the twelve months of last year, the country grew 10% in visitors by air compared to 2019, and 20% in cruise ship visitors. He mentioned, at the same time, that for the first time more than 8 billion dollars in foreign currency was generated in tourism.
In the activity, Collado indicated that last December was the best month in the history of Dominican tourism, exceeding three quarters of a million tourists for the first time, with a total of 765,910 visitors.
“We grew by 10% compared to 2019 in terms of tourist arrivals by air and we grew by 20% in terms of visitor arrivals by cruise ship compared to that year, for which we reached an unprecedented total of 8.47 million visitors that the Dominican Republic had in 2022, thanks to the promotional work with intelligence and transparency that we are doing in this administration,” he said.
The minister also specified that in 2022 important data was also obtained on cruise ships that visit the country, totaling 1,311,129 excursionists who, added to the 7,165,387 tourists who came by air, add up to 8,476,000 516 visitors to the country.
In December, according to Collado, the airport that had the largest arrival of tourists was Punta Cana with more than 425,000, followed by Las Américas with some 206,000 tourists. While the number 1 tourist issuing country for the Dominican Republic was the United States, followed by Canada, Colombia, Argentina and Germany.
Economic and social dynamics
Faced with these data, the Head of State, Luis Abinader, said that the record for arrivals of foreign visitors could be exceeded and the number never seen in Dominican history is being reached.
President Abinader commented that tourist activity in the country, which generated more than 8 billion dollars in foreign currency last year, constitutes this line in an essential basis of economic and social dynamics.
“That is our commitment, that is our ambition: to continue growing, to continue making the Dominican Republic bigger and more leading,” he emphasized.
Abinader stated that the Dominican Republic is living stories, and for this reason, the authorities spare no effort in rescuing it in the best way so that everyone can get to know it and enjoy it.
Referring to the process of relaunching the national tourist activity after the post-pandemic opening, the Head of State indicated that for this, all the necessary measures were adopted to lift it and rescue it together with the investors of the hotel infrastructures established in the Dominican Republic.
Two Pedernales hotels will start on February 4
President Luis Abinader took advantage of the scenario to offer the tourism figures to announce that on February 4 the first shovel will be given for the construction of the first two hotels in the Pedernales province, an area that they intend to take advantage of to exploit for tourism.
In this sense, the president expressed that the General Directorate of Public-Private Partnerships and together with the Ministry of Tourism have been working on initiatives to accelerate the development of the south, which is one of the poorest areas of the country and which, In addition to this, a relaunch plan for the northern zone is also coordinated with that same institution. In this regard, Abinader stated that due to all of the above, the tourism industry is changing and has been recognized as the most resilient in the world as a result of the work of all Dominicans, of a private sector that decided to collaborate with the government to achieve the recovery in record time, and in a government that works tirelessly and with transparency.
An agreement between the Government and environmentalists was recently announced that guarantees not to affect protected areas with the Pedernales project.
