The Dominican Republic projects to close 2025 with a record 11.7 million visitors

The Dominican Republic expects to receive 11.7 million visitors this year, a “record” in tourism, one of the country’s primary sources of foreign exchange, authorities in the sector highlighted.

“We will set a record for the number of visitors, despite the storms that have affected the country and the air crisis that the United States recently faced,” said Tourism Minister David Collado.

Last year, the country received 11,192,047 tourists, according to figures from the Ministry of Tourism ( Mitur ).

Collado stated that the figures indicate that more than nine million tourists had arrived in the country by October, 2.1 million of them via cruise ships.

“We are achieving these historic figures without counting tourism from Russia and Ukraine, which represented about 500,000 tourists annually,” the official added.

Furthermore, the President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, confirmed that he will participate in the Madrid Tourism Fair ( Fitur ) in January 2026 and that there the country will mainly promote the destination of Pedernales, where the authorities are determined to turn it into a “second” Punta Cana due to its attractive beaches.

Abinader also stated that 99.1% of tourists who come to the country behave in accordance with the law, and that his Government is working to ensure that the remaining 0.9% are prosecuted for the “harm” they cause by promoting child sexual exploitation, primarily.

He assured that the Government is “decisively” confronting this practice and has managed to reduce it in places like the municipality of Sosúa and its beach of the same name, one of the areas most affected by it.