Tourism growth in 2008 for Dominican Republic

Between January and August 2,567,050 tourists visited the Dominican Republic, according to its Ministry of Tourism. This is a 4.5% increase compared to the same period in 2007, when 2,455,932 tourists visited. Over half the tourists came through Punta Cana International Airport (54.7%), while the remaining tourists came through Las Americas International Airport (19.3%), Puerto Plata (15.8%) and La Romana (5.5%). A small number of tourists arrived by Santiago’s central Cibao airport, or Isabela airport in Santo Domingo and El Catey airport in Samaná.

The Ministry of Tourism reports that the Russian tourist market grew considerably in 2008 with an 83% increase in Russian tourists compared to last year, Ukrainian tourism is up 11% and Polish tourism is up 92.5%. From Latin America, there were also increases. There were increases from Brazil (up 32.5%), Ecuador (up 37.9%), Mexico (up 15.5%), Chile (up 44.8%), Argentina (up 38.1%) and Colombia (30.1%) as air links improved.

US arrivals only increased 2.9%, but there were 11.9% more visitors from Canada. From France there was a 4.2% increase and from Switzerland a 12.5% increase.

The World Bank’s International Financial Corporation (IFC) chief praised Dominican Republic’s 13 point advance in the “Doing Business 2009” report, as one of the world’s top 10 reformer nations.

 

IFC economist Roberto Senderowitsch suggested that country continue advancing to reach the goal of spurring a series of reforms, including taxes and the mercantile restructure law.