SANTO DOMINGO - With 81.6% occupancy, Bávaro-Punta Cana was the tourist destination that accumulated the largest number of visitors in the hotels of that area during the past month of March, according to the Tourism Intelligence System (SITUR) of the Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic (MITUR).
According to figures contained on the state agency's website, the overall average occupancy rate at Dominican hotels during the aforementioned period was 76.9%, with Boca Chica-Juan Dolio being the area with the fewest visitors.
La Romana-Bayahibe was the second most popular tourist destination, achieving 78.5% hotel occupancy, while Puerto Plata, the Bride of the Atlantic, followed closely behind, reaching 72.9% occupancy in its diverse hotel offerings.
SITUR is the agency that provides information on the trends, structure, and outlook of the tourism sector and its value chain in the Dominican Republic. Last year, the country's hotel occupancy rate averaged 71%.
Samaná continues to lead as one of the tourist destinations in the land of merengue, achieving a 69.8% occupancy rate in its hotels during the month of March.
The hotel complexes located in Sosua-Cabarete, in the Dominican North, achieved that 66.3% of their facilities were visited by vacationers in the third month of 2023.
Greater Santo Domingo's hotel occupancy rate was 65.6%; the heart city, Santiago de los Caballeros, which is being promoted by MITUR as one of the new tourist destinations offering a diverse range of options, achieved a hotel occupancy rate of 62.4%.
Tourists in the first quarter
Tourism Minister David Collado reported last week that the Dominican Republic broke its record for tourist arrivals in the first quarter of this year with 2,076,171 visitors.
He stated that the month of March also broke the record for visits, with the arrival of 740,324 tourists by air, exceeding the same month of 2019 by ten percent and last year by 20 percent.
He also reported that in March the country received 280,247 cruise passengers, surpassing the same month last year when 134,070 arrived by sea.
“If we add the 740,324 tourists who arrived by air to the 280,247 cruise ship passengers, we are talking about 1,020,571 visitors in March alone, something never seen before in a single month,” Collado emphasized.
