Dominican Republic: Santo Domingo wants to restore tourist traffic from Russia

Dominican Republic is interested in restoring tourist traffic from Russia, the country's Finance Minister Hochi Vicente told Izvestia. According to him, this will become possible after the conflict in Ukraine is over, while cooperation with Moscow is still difficult. At the same time, the Dominican Republic may lose about $149 million a year from the decrease in tourist flow from Russia. In the first 10 months of 2024 the state was visited by 18 thousand Russians, which is almost ten times less than the index of 2021 - then there were 183.7 thousand guests from our country.

The Ukrainian conflict has reduced the tourist flow to the Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is interested in restoring the previous level of tourist flow from Russia. This was told to "Izvestia" by the Minister of Finance of the country Hochi Vicente.

- Before the conflict in Ukraine a lot of tourists came to us from Russia. We are interested in restoring this level of tourism, but, obviously, it is possible only when the conflict in Ukraine stops, it blocks everything, - said Hochi Vicente.

According to the minister, for the same reason the level of trade turnover between the Dominican Republic and Russia has decreased, the implementation of joint projects has also been hampered.

Earlier, the Ambassador of the Caribbean state in Russia Alejandro Arias Zarzuela noted that now there are official contacts between the departments of the two countries on the return of direct flights.

Russians have traditionally been among the most frequent visitors to the Dominican Republic. So, for example, in the pre-pandemic year 2019, about 217 thousand of our tourists came to the country - such statistics are given by the Central Bank of the Caribbean state. More travelers that year arrived only from the United States - more than 2 million and Canada - 865 thousand.

But in 2021, the figure slightly decreased, reaching 183.7 thousand, nevertheless, Russian tourists came in second place, the first was still the U.S. - 1.6 million, but from Canada came only 123 thousand travelers.

The same Central Bank of the Dominican Republic provides statistics for 2024, but without data for November and December. During this period, the country managed to visit 18 thousand Russians, and the lack of direct air transportation played a significant role here. Now the way to the popular resort of Punta Cana takes more than a day, and a round-trip ticket can cost about 180 thousand rubles.

- On average, Russians left $1.5 thousand for two people. The destination was the most popular in the Caribbean with an extensive flight program, but the proximity to the United States and fear of sanctions pressure on carriers, the lack of Dominican carriers capable of performing flights to Russia, has led to the fact that now the destination de facto does not exist for Russian tour operators. 'We are trying to launch flights with transit airlines, but it is difficult,' says Artur Muradyan, vice president of the Association of Russian Tour Operators (ATOR).

Thus, if we take 2019 and 2024 into account, the Dominican Republic could lose an average of about $149 million a year from the decline in Russian tourism. Nevertheless, these data do not take into account the change in the price level and, consequently, the level of spending by tourists.

The impact of tourism on the country's economy

The GDP of the Dominican Republic is directly dependent on the revenues of the tourism sector. In general, the country leads among other states in the region in terms of tourism's contribution to the country's economy. In October this year, Vice President Raquel Peña said that tourism revenues account for 19% of the Caribbean nation's GDP.

"Tourism generates thousands of jobs and opportunities for Dominicans. It is not only an economic income, but also a road to shared prosperity. Therefore, on the part of the government, in line with the clear vision of our President Luis Abinader, we are implementing a strategy for sustainable economic growth, with the tourism sector at the center of it," she remarked.

According to some estimates, tourism creates 795,500 jobs, which is quite a lot for a country with a population of 11.33 million. In addition, tourism revenues allow the Dominican Republic to maintain inflation at 1-4% and lead the economy to an annual growth rate of 5.1%, which is higher than the regional average (2.1%).

- The Dominican Republic's economy is built solely on tourism, because it has nothing else to offer in terms of GDP replenishment. Therefore, the decrease in Russian tourist traffic is a very serious blow for them. They realize their potential. With the closure of Mexico and the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean market has now been completely taken over by Cuba, but Cuba is far enough away from the quality of Dominican hotels and the quality of their service," says Maya Kotlyar, founder of the company for individual tourism MAYEL Travel, to Izvestia.

Unable to restore the tourist flow from Russia, the Dominican Republic, as the local media state, has turned its attention to tourists from Canada. In 2024, the country was visited by about 760 thousand citizens of the North American state. Also quite a lot of travelers came from neighboring countries: Puerto Rico - 250 thousand, Argentina - 224 thousand, Colombia - 300 thousand.

A total of 5.8 million foreigners came to the Dominican Republic in 2024. This is slightly higher than the 2019 pre-pandemic figure of 5.3 million and significantly higher than the 2021 figure of 3.6 million.

- According to partners' reports, there is no such critical situation in the Dominican Republic, reorientation to other markets has taken place. They have not completely replaced Russian tourism, but the hotels there are not empty," says Artur Muradyan.

Russian guests could rather bring additional income to the Dominican market. According to Artur Muradyan, they are more generous than Western tourists - they book hotels for at least 10 nights, often book excursions and tend to spend more in stores and restaurants.