Dominican Republic exceeds by 18.7% pre-pandemic figures in arrival of tourists

Santo Domingo, DR

The arrival of non-resident foreigners in the Dominican Republic reached 349,379 tourists at the close of October 2021, an increase of 25.9% over the previous month and 18.7% compared to October 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

The data, contained in the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development’s Sectoral Panorama report for October 2021, reveal that the number of tourist cards sold experienced a monthly increase of 5.8 % and 15.9 % compared to 2019, in line with the increase in passenger arrivals.

As for the nationality of tourists, 28.9 % were Americans, with 6,000 more visitors from this source concerning September, and the arrival of Russian (26.40 %), Canadian (9.10 %), French (8.35 %), and German (3.59 %) visitors also increased.

According to the Tourism Intelligence System (Situr), the open hotel occupancy rate increased 3.9 points concerning last month, being Sosúa – Cabarete (north), with 5.8 points, Bávaro-Punta Cana (east), with 5.1 and La Romana – Bayahíbe (east) with 4.7 points, the ones which presented the highest growth in occupancy.

The text, which covers economic activity in the agricultural, industrial, and service sectors, also highlights the evolution of employment in the country, having registered a total of 2,124,733 active workers in the Dominican Social Security System in October 2021.

This translates into more than 236,000 formally employed persons in the last 12 months and of 25,727 formal workers concerning September, figures representing the total recovery of the persons who were left out of the system in April and May 2020 due to the pandemic.

The report states that, so far this year, the number of formal workers registered a variation of 10.7 % (204,000 additional employed persons), dynamics explained by the activity of hotels, bars and restaurants, commerce, and other services.

According to the report, Trade also recorded an increase, which puts the total deflated sales at 16 billion pesos (about 281.74 million dollars), which represents a rise of 12.4 % compared to October 2020 and of 5.8 % concerning October 2019, exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

In the agro-livestock sector, the production volume of agricultural goods decreased by 23.1 %. However, exports corresponding to this segment grew by 4.5 % compared to October 2020, with a nominal value of $55.2 million.

Also, there was a monthly decrease of 8.3 points and 10.1 % year-on-year in industrial manufacturing. However, exports of this item amounted to 122.5 million dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 21.3 %, the document states.