Dominican Republic fails to maintain tourism record: arrivals fall almost 10% in February

The Dominican Republic has become one of the leading vacation destinations in the Caribbean due to its attractive white sandy beaches, potential for luxury and sports tourism, and its Colonial City, an intangible heritage of humanity.

However, after four years of “records”, as the Minister of Tourism, David Collado, has called the growth of the tourism industry and its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP), the data show a drop in arrivals of almost 10% in the first months of the year.

In February 2025, authorities recorded that 588,212 non-resident passengers crossed the Dominican Republic’s air terminals, a drop of 9.85 % from the same month of 2024, when the country received 755,832 foreigners.

The Tourism Intelligence System (Situr) indicated that 167,620 non-residents stopped arriving in the DR as tourists during February of this year.

Breaking down the data by region, the Americas stopped issuing 141,717 tourists, going from 652,487 to 510,770 in February 2024 and February 2025, for a negative inter-annual variation of 21.71%.

In the case of Europe, the continent that became the second largest source of tourists to the Dominican Republic, passenger arrivals decreased by 25.2% when comparing February 2025 (75,305) and February 2024 (100,804), whose loss has been previously explained by the suspension of long-haul flights, fuel costs and the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The Asian continent concentrated 0.2% of air arrivals to the Dominican Republic during February of this year. That is, 1,740 Asians out of the 588,212 non-resident passengers registered by Situr. The segment also presented a difference of 13.8% between February 2024 and the same month of 2025.

Situr recorded that tourists from Oceania varied from 227 to 154, that is, 73 fewer passengers as tourists, according to Acento.

Mitur said non-resident passenger arrivals were 1,348,141 between January and February this year. This represents a 10% inter-annual decrease, with 149,920 fewer tourists registered compared to the same period in 2024.