SANTO DOMINGO.- The East and North regions of the country registered the highest hotel occupancy rates during the past month of March, according to the Tourism Intelligence System (SITUR), an agency of the Ministry of Tourism (Mitur).
According to the figures contained in the official report, Bávaro-Punta Cana recorded the highest percentage with 83.8% of guests in its facilities, while Puerto Plata continues to rebound and is in second place with 81.1% occupancy.
La Romana-Bayahibe, located like Bávaro in the East, the main tourist area of the Dominican Republic, achieved an 81% occupancy rate for its hotel buildings, according to the data.
SITUR provides information on the trends, structures and perspectives of the tourism sector and its value chain in the Dominican Republic.
The average overall occupancy rate is 80%, according to the figures. The tourist area of Samaná reached 69.7% occupancy, followed by Sosua-Cabarete at 67.9% for hotel accommodations.
In Greater Santo Domingo, hotels were 67.5% occupied during the third month of the year, in Juan Dolio-Boca Chica 65.7%, while Santiago de los Caballeros was 62.5% occupied.
In January, hotel occupancy was 80.3%, rising to 84.1% in February.
Tourist arrivals in March
Last March, the country received 1,104,770 visitors, 16 percent more than in the same month last year, according to the report released last Tuesday by the Ministry of Tourism. Of that number, 836,502 arrived by air and 267,768 by sea.
During the first quarter the country received 3,226,484, representing a historic figure according to David Collado, Minister of Tourism.
“We continue to reach spectacular figures: 1,104,270 visitors last month, which gives us the magic number 3,226,484 in the first three months of this year, something never seen before in the history of Dominican tourism,” Collado commented when presenting the sector's performance with the participation of industry leaders and stakeholders.
According to official data from the Ministry of Tourism (Mitur), the country has 1,332,234 tourist reservations for trips planned between April and June. The agency estimates that these reservations are 8.4% higher than those made in the second quarter of 2023 (1.2 million) and represent a 24% increase compared to two years ago, when the figure barely exceeded one million.
