Between April and October no passengers arrived by sea to the country

Santo Domingo, DR

Between January and March of this year, 344,485 passengers arrived in the country by sea. Still, between April and October, there was no registration at the ports due to the maritime borders’ closure due to the expansion of COVID-19.

In January, 17 ships arrived at the Don Diego (Ferry) and Sans Souci ports with 6,874 passengers. In February, through these same ports, 2,715 passengers arrived in 15 vessels, and in March, already announced the restrictions due to the effect of COVID-19, only one vessel arrived with 2,019 people.

The ports that receive the greatest flow of cruise ship passengers (Puerto Plata and La Romana) received 285,300 passengers in 105 ships between January and March, some 150,738 for the Amber Cove and 134,562 for the port of La Romana, according to statistics published by the Central Bank.

Via Samaná, some 17 ships were received by which 28,828 passengers arrived, while by Cap Cana, 18,749 arrived in eight maritime ships.

The restrictions for the arrival of cruise ships were lifted in the country as of last Sunday, November 1st, but the arrival of the first vessel to enter the Dominican port for tourism purposes has not yet been registered, nor is there date as to when this could happen.

In Europe and Asia, many countries have already lifted restrictions on the arrival of cruise ships at their maritime borders to encourage tourism and revive their economies.

Germany, Italy, Greece, and other European countries have been allowing the virus to re-emerge since June, but the threat of new restrictions and the first attempts to revive the industry have been ruined.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the reactivation of the cruise industry is more timid. Cuba announced the lifting of restrictions in mid-October, while for Mexican ports, it was announced for the beginning of November, under strict sanitary protocol measures. However, the second wave of the pandemic could leave in “good wishes” the announcements of reactivation of tourism and cruise ships’ arrival.