The Dominican Republic reached in 2025 a historical record of 11,676,901 visitorswhich is equivalent to a growth of 4.7%. This is the result of a profound and sustained transformation of the tourism sector in the last five years, reported yesterday Thursday the tourism minister, David Collado.
The minister presented the performance results of the industry between January and December of the year just ended.
The arrival of 8,861,169 foreigners non-residents airway and 2,815,732 passengers by sea, confirms the trend of a tourism young and predominantly family-oriented that values leisure.
Of the surveyed tourists During their stay in the last 12 months, 92% said they would return to Quisqueya, while 61% of them would recommend the destination.
“We have closed an extremely strong year, and in a forceful way, in the tourism growth“he emphasized tourism minister, David Collado.
The official highlighted that only in December The million barrier was surpassed, with 1,392,649 visitors, 14.2% more than the 884,129 in December 2024. The 20th was even the day with the highest tourist flow of the entire year: 42,494 tourists entered the country on that date alone.
Success factors
Collado explained that this performance was the result of market diversification issuers, as well as
launch of new air routes that guaranteed the entry of 69,724 flights.
The expansion of connectivity from Punta Cana Airport was decisive: only the routes to and from terminals located on the east coast of the United States – such as the Denver and Raleigh-Durman airports -, Mexico City or Tucumán, Argentina, added 71,758 new seats to more than 12 million during 2025. This also influenced this terminal – which received 61% of tourists in that period – to grow by 8%, with 5.4 million passengers.
Strategy change
The technical vice minister of Tourism, Jacqueline Moraassured that the Government changed its strategy to “accelerate the pace” given the international situation that the tourism last year.
This translated into a greater productive chain: the hotel industry reported a room occupancy of around 71%, while the dynamism in the maritime offer positioned the country as the third destination for the tourism of Caribbean cruises, only behind the Bahamas and Cozumel, Mexico.
South America: the “great revelation” of the tourism
Although 65% of the tourists who entered the country in the last 12 months came from North America, the source market that grew the most was South Americawith an increase of 24% – with the entry of 269,909 additional passengers compared to 2024 – and a participation of 16% in the last twelve months.
“South America It is the great revelation for Dominican Republicnumber one in tourist growth,” Collado asserted, highlighting greater arrivals of Argentines, Colombians, Peruvians, Brazilians, Ecuadorians, Paraguayans and Chileans.
