Touting the Dominican destination pays off, tourists jump 7.1% in first 9 months

Santo Domingo.- The efficient and successful spendingto promote the Dominican destination has been instrumental in attracting over 4.5million tourists in the first nine months, or 301,887 more visitors than in2015, a 7.1% jump.

Tourismminister Francisco Javier Garcia provided the figures, noting that 359,063visitors arrived by air just in September, a 9% increase compared with the sameperiod last year.

The official also revealed that the Europeanmarket continued its recovery last month with an increase of 28.4%, especially theRussian market with a 197.8% jump compared to September 2015.

Garcia said cruise passenger arrivals fromJanuary to September topped 581,298 or 67.6% more than the same 2015 period. "That’sabout 234,459 additional cruise passengers."

"This boost in arrivals of cruisepassengers is due, among other factors, to the start of operations of the AmberCove terminal at Puerto Plata in October 2015," the official said.