The arrival of tourists to the Dominican Republic from South America surpassed the barrier of one million passengers by air in the 2024with 1,117,936 travelers who were motivated to visit the country between January and December of last year, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism.
With this growth –12.36% compared to 2023 and 56.4% compared to the 714,319 who entered in 2019–, the region surpasses for the first time Europe in the arrivals of non-resident foreigners to the Dominican Republicwhich in the 2024 They were only 824,117, for a drop of 16.32% compared to 2023.
Statistics show a growing interest of tourists south americans to meet Quisqueyaat a time when the Dominican Republic seeks to strengthen its air competitiveness in this region to compensate for the decline in tourists coming from the Old Continent, which is still suffering from the economic repercussions derived from COVID-19, added to the effects of almost three years of war between Russia and Ukraine.
Passenger descent russians and ukrainians
He tourism Dominican exceeded the set goal of closing the 2024 with more than 11 million visitors in the 2024in the midst of a challenging international context, influenced by expectations regarding the recent elections in the United States – the main emitter of tourists to the country – and the trend of fewer trips to Europe.
Regarding this last point, the minister of TourismDavid Collado, when recently presenting the official figures of the tourist flow in the country, which reflected a 9% increase in the total number of visitors at the end of last year.
“Today, we do not have the Russian and Ukrainian market that was handled by the La Romana Airport (…), more than half a million tourists has lost the Dominican Republic and, anyway, we are (with the arrival of passengers by air) 32% more than in 2019, 19% more than in 2022 and 6% more than in 2023,” he expressed.
Although the Dominican tourism industry was one of the first in reopen After receiving the first vaccines against COVID, the economic and geopolitical crisis that began on February 24, 2022 with the Russian-Ukrainian war has significantly reduced visits from these two countries.
Between 2014 and 2019, an average of 173,836 tourists russians and 11,003 ukrainians They moved to the Dominican Republic every year, according to statistics from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic (BCRD). This is almost 185,000 travelers.
As of December 2024Mitur records the entry into the country of only 3,077 russians and 5,039 ukrainiansfor a total of 8,116 passengers. This is just the 4.39% average of passengers who arrived at the Dominican Republic in the five years prior to 2020.
La Romana is one of the best-positioned tourist destinations among Europeans, and the crisis on that continent has negatively affected the number of passengers arriving at its airport. By 2024, La Romana Airport will register the arrival of 75,790 passengers , for a recovery of 0.5% compared to 2023. However, the tourist flow is still 61.4% lower than the volume it received in 2019, 199,747 passengers.”La Romana lost the entire European market, which was the airport that was dedicated to marketing, searching and making agreements. But we are already improving, we are opening, there are new airlines that are arriving in La Romana and we have projections to reach, at least, more than 200,000 tourists in this year 2027,” Collado predicted.
With an eye on South America
He minister of Tourism stated that the country overcame this decline in tourists thanks to the fact that arrivals from traditional destinations – the United States and Canada – have been stimulated, while air connectivity with South America has been reinforced.
“What did we do? We saw the issue of fuel costs, we saw inflation in Europeand we played to bet on the market Latin Americaand here are the results: we grew 35.7% in Argentina (in 2024), and a market that was not well managed, like Puerto Rico, we see the growth of 9.9%,” explained Collado
Added to this is the arrival of tourists Colombianswhich also grew 9.9%, this being the main country of which more travelers are arriving to the Dominican Republic from South Americawith 336,693.
Behind Colombia and Argentina are BrazilPeru and Ecuador, these being the five passengers who arrived the most in Quisqueya in it 2024.
The president of the Civil Aviation Board (JAC), Héctor Porcella, expressed his optimism that the flow of tourists from Argentina will increase, after recently signing an open skies agreement with that country. “The government of Argentina has made an opening in its civil aviation policy, and we were one of the first countries to sign an open skies agreement with Argentina. This will begin to be implemented in the coming months, and you can be “We are sure that this market will grow in 2025, and that is very positive,” he told the press after the presentation of the tourism statistics. He indicated that the authorities are interested in capturing and strengthening other markets, as is the case from Chile, Bolivia and Paraguay. He recalled that Quisqueya has more than 55 airlines that fly to the Dominican Republic with more than 150 destinations. “No country in the region has that, only the Dominican Republic has that,” he emphasized.
