SANTO DOMINGO.-Dominican tourism continues its upward trajectory and started 2023 reaping good results with the arrival in January of nearly one million visitors who chose the land of merengue to vacation or visit the Caribbean country for some reason.
David Collado, the tourism minister, offered his first report of 2023, reporting that 948,737 visitors chose this country as their destination, to fulfill multiple purposes ranging from leisure, family reunions, weddings, to participation in conferences.
According to figures provided by Collado, last month there was a year-on-year growth of 27%, highlighting that in this way the first month of 2023 became the best January in history.
“The challenge for 2023 is to surpass ourselves, after the extraordinary results of 2022, and we are achieving it,” Collado emphasized while presenting the usual balance of the performance of this sector, in a hotel in the National District.
He explained that 674,737 tourists entered the country by air, representing a 27% increase compared to 2022; and 273,845 cruise passengers arrived, representing a 191% increase compared to 2022. This resulted in a total of 948,582 visitors to this side of the island, which translates into a 52% increase in total visitor arrivals through airports and ports.
Busiest airports
- Punta Cana, which received 406,000 tourists
- The Americas, with 141,000
- Santiago, with 62,000
- Puerto Plata received 45,000
As far as cruises, January 2023 was "the month with the highest arrival of cruise passengers in the country's history", exceeding by almost 50% the previous record reached in January 2017, when 186,000 passengers arrived in the country, versus the more than 273,000 this month.
“And it was not only the best month in history in terms of cruise passenger arrivals, it was also the month with the highest number of operations, with a total of 112 operations, including the arrival of the world's largest cruise ship, the Wonder of the Seas, with a capacity of almost 7,000 people, at the port of Taino Bay,” said Jacqueline Mora, Vice Minister of Tourism.
Hotel occupancy
The average hotel occupancy rate was 78% in January 2023, exceeding the 2022 average occupancy rate of 71%.
The tourist destination with the best average occupancy rate was La Romana-Bayahibe, which had 84%; followed by Punta Cana-Bávaro, with 83%, Collado specified.
