Having received 782,000 visitors in August, the Dominican Republic is all set to cross the landmark figure of 10 million tourists in the current year, about 33 pc more than in 2019.

Tourism to the Caribbean nation of Dominican Republic has continued to gain strength through the year as over 7 million travellers have already visited the country in the period January-August of this year, a growth of 25 pc over the same period last year.

According to data released by Dominican Ministry of Tourism, this total includes 782,000 tourists in August, an all-time record for the month.

Tourism in the country has displayed robust growth right from the start of this year, continuing the acceleration noticed in post-pandemic period. Cumulative tourist arrivals in the country increased by 35.7 pc in the first four months of the year compared to 2022. According to the latest data, 3.75 million travellers visited the country in January-April, compared to 2.76 million a year ago, a new record compared to the periods from 2018 onwards.

As a result, the Dominican Republic registered its most successful four-month period. In April, the positive trend continued, with 862,705 visitors coming to the country, with 681,567 arriving by air and 181,138 arriving by sea.

In April, traditional hotels had an average occupancy rate of 81 pc among tourists, while resorts had 77 pc. According to the sector’s forecasts, there will be 7.9 million visitor arrivals for the remainder of the year, higher than the 7.1 million in 2022.

The Ministry has predicted that 10 million travellers will visit the Dominican Republic by the end of 2023, the country’s highest-ever total, eclipsing the 7.5 million visitors that the country received in 2019.

Additionally, Dominican Republic tourism is expected to increase by 54 pc during the fourth quarter of 2023, ranking the country first in global post-pandemic tourism growth for the period.

Dominican Republic tourism is expected to grow by 10 pc year-over-year in 2023 compared with 2019, said Ministry officials in a statement.

‘‘Land-based visitors to the country stay an average of eight days. While air travel remains the method of choice for visiting the country, the cruise segment has made a strong showing in the first months of the year and has remained a key element of the country’s current numbers,’’ says the ministry in a press statement.

According to the data by Caribbean Tourist Organisation, upto end of August 2023, the country has hosted 1.5 million cruise ship travellers, surpassing the 1.1 million cruise vacationers the country welcomed in 2019.

In addition to the present cruise ports in La Romana and Puerto Plata, the Dominican Republic will open another port in Pedernales in December, said officials.