The Dominican Republic is and will be a dream destination for many vacationers, as proven by nearly four million satisfied foreign tourists, more than 3,000 new hotel rooms in the exclusive four and five-star segments and record results of USD 4.2 billion. The Dominican Republic was able to further consolidate its position as leading Caribbean destination in 2008.
The new Minister for Tourism of the Dominican Republic, Francisco Javier García, inaugurated in August 2008, supports further expansion of the infrastructure. He intends to take up the policies of his predecessor, promoting the positive investment climate through growth and consolidation and thus positioning the tourism industry as the economically strongest industry in the country.
The Dominican Republic has been continuously reporting rising tourism figures since 1980 and has since become the Germans’ favorite destination in the Caribbean. In 2008, the number of foreign tourists rose by 6.6 percent on the previous year with 3,447,730 visitors, 1,308,901 of which from Europe and 206,940 from Germany. From October 2008 to January 2009, the government approved tourism projects of foreign investors amounting to USD 14.562 million – earnings amounted to almost USD 15 billion.
Nearly 11,000 new hotel beds were added in the last four years, and 44,000 jobs were created. The basic improvement of infrastructure remains a decisive factor for the growth of the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic. More than USD 89 million were injected into the construction of streets, sewerage, waste disposal facilities and accommodation for hotel employees, as well as the restoration of beaches since the proposal of the “plan for the improvement of the infrastructure” in 2005. This strategy will now be continued and optimized by Francisco Javier García. The Dominican Ministry for Tourism aims to cross the margin of 4.1 million tourists per year in 2009.
The average length of stay per foreign visitor in 2008 was 9.23 days, and tourism generated record earnings of USD 4.2 billion for the country, with an upward trend. The renewed increase in earnings resulted in part from the broader range of products in up-scale tourism, which is reflected in the increased average spendings per day of 110.35 presently reported. This makes tourism the largest source of foreign exchange proceeds, ahead of foreign commerce, even, providing nearly 200,000 jobs for Dominicans.
