SANTO DOMINGO.- Favorable winds blowing in favor of Dominican tourism, along with the actions taken by the Ministry of Tourism (MITUR) to facilitate the arrival of tourists to the country, project that the Dominican Republic will close the year with some 9.8 million visitors, according to David Collado yesterday, Monday.
The Minister of MITUR stated that March is projected to be "the best month" in the history of the sector in the country.
Forecasts indicate that in 2023 between 7.8 and 7.9 million tourists will arrive by air and 1.9 million by cruise ship, for a total of about 9.8 million visitors, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Collado told the media.
"For the first time, the Dominican Republic will reach 9.7 or 9.8 million tourists, and for the first time we will approach or almost reach the famous 10 million," he said, referring to the goal set some time ago by this Caribbean country, which relies on tourism as its main source of foreign exchange.
Between January and February of this year alone, the Dominican Republic received 1.8 million visitors, a record number.
In 2022, the country welcomed over 7.1 million tourists by air and 1.3 million by cruise ship, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and reaching record figures.
According to the minister, the immediate challenge now is "to continue improving air connectivity."
He also cited some of the efforts being made in that direction, such as the agreements recently signed with the airline Condor to cover several routes this summer that were previously operated by Air France.
