SANTO DOMINGO– The Dominican Republic tops the list of the most visited global destinations for 2022. This was announced by the travel data collection firm ForwardKeys in its annual report titled “The Most Visited Destinations of 2022.”
According to the document, issued in mid-November by the firm, the best performing destinations globally this year, due to the large number of tourist arrivals, were located in Central America and the Caribbean, with the country in first position in the 2022 recovery chart.
ForwardKeys indicated that the Dominican Republic experienced a 5% growth in tourist arrivals, helped by a 13% increase in seating capacity, compared to 2019.
The brochure details that between January 1 and October 18, the latest data available on air ticket issuance, the country received 5% more visitors than in 2019, followed by Turkey, Costa Rica and Mexico, which received the same number of visitors.
They explain that, driven by pent-up demand from American travelers, sun and beach destinations were the preferred choice and achieved the highest level of recovery, with a drop of only 15% in the second half of the year compared to the same period in 2019.
“In line with this trend, the best performing countries were those with a world-class sun and beach offering, namely Caribbean and Central American countries such as the Dominican Republic (+5%), Aruba (+3%), Costa Rica (0%) and Mexico (0%),” they point out.
In that sense, the city of Punta Cana (+12%) was among the top-performing destination cities, "testimony to the success of open-door policies and the demand for sun and beach," the report emphasizes.
ForwardKeys analysts explained that the strong representation of Central American and Caribbean destinations at the top of the list reflects the relative strength of the US source market and the approach taken by many countries highly dependent on tourism in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, which, during the pandemic, imposed less severe Covid-19 travel restrictions than elsewhere.
They emphasized that by doing so they maintained their visitor economies and as the year has progressed, they have consolidated their leading position and have begun to surpass pre-pandemic volumes.
“The sustained success of these regions is largely due to the open-door travel policy that many of their destinations adopted at the beginning of the last century,” they emphasized.
Source: Listín Diario.
