The arrival of foreigners in August represents a growth of 27 percent compared to 2019 and 11 percent compared to 2018.
SANTO DOMINGO.- President Luis Abinader and Tourism Minister David Collado agreed that the tourism industry is "better than ever" in the Dominican Republic, having reached a record 621,953 arrivals in August, surpassing the same month in 2019 by 124,563 visitors.
Minister Collado said that, if we add to those figures the 94,792 cruise ship passengers who visited the country last month, "we are talking about 716,745 visitors in August, including tourists and day-trippers, something never seen before.".
While presenting the sector's growth figures to President Abinader and representatives of the private sector, Collado reported that from January to August the country received 4,904,162 tourists and another 755,818 excursionists, so the projection of having the best year in the history of Dominican tourism in terms of visitor arrivals remains.
“This means, Mr. President, that in eight months Dominicans received 5,655,980 visitors. If this isn't a record for tourist arrivals, what is?” the official asked.
For his part, the president highlighted the government's policies that have led to these results and assured that they will continue to promote the sector, which is currently the main engine of the Dominican economy.
“There is no doubt that our tourism sector is experiencing one of its best periods and has established itself as one of the main drivers of our economy, generating jobs for Dominicans. Every day, the Dominican population becomes more aware of this situation and what tourism means for our economy.”.
“We can highlight that this month of August was the best month in the historical series in our country in which we have already been breaking the record, month after month, surpassing the previous one.
“Our tourism is growing faster than the rest of the world, which strengthens our leadership and places us in a very promising future scenario. The vast potential of our tourism is materializing in the field of visits, but also, as we see, in an investment that continues to grow and in a record number of applications for approval for tourism activities,” Abinader said at the event.
Of the 621,953 visitors in August, 502,289 were foreign and 119,674 were ethnic.
The arrival of foreigners in August represents a growth of 27 percent compared to 2019 and 11 percent compared to 2018.
Visits from domestic tourists last month also saw an increase of 18 percent compared to August 2019 and 39 percent compared to 2018, according to the figures.
The arrival of tourists by air last month set a record, surpassing the years 2018, when 537,576 arrived; and 2019 with 497,390 visits.
