Tourism in the Dominican Republic is an important sector of the country's economy. More than 10 million tourists visited the Dominican Republic in 2023, making it the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean and putting it in the top 5 overall in the Americas. The industry accounts for 11.6% of the nation's GDP and is a particularly important source of revenue in coastal areas of the country. The nation's tropical climate, white sand beaches, diverse mountainous landscape and colonial history attracts visitors from around the world. In 2022, the nation's tourism was named the best-performing nation since the height of the pandemic with over 5% visitors more in comparison to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
As one of the most geographically diverse nations in the region, the Dominican Republic is home to Pico Duarte, the Caribbean's tallest mountain peak, and Lake Enriquillo, its largest lake and lowest elevation. The earliest cathedral, castle, monastery and fortress built in all of the Americas is located in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone, an area declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Colonial City of Santo Domingo – UNESCO World Heritage Centre . Whc.unesco.org. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.UNESCO around the World | República Dominicana . Unesco.org (November 14, 1957). Retrieved on 2014-04-02.
History of tourism in the Dominican Republic Due to political conflicts and warfare that had been present throughout most of the country's history, tourism was not common in the Dominican Republic until the 1930s. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo's rise to power represented a turning point for this facet of the economy. During the 1940s, the Trujillo government initiated the development of eight government-owned-and-operated resorts in the capital of Ciudad Trujillo (now Santo Domingo) to foster the growth of a tourism industry. The most famous of these developments was the Hotel Jaragua, which gathered international attention for its luxury, alongside the Malecón de Santo Domingo in 1942. Many of the hotels built during this time remain open and include: the Hotel Provincial, which is now a children's hospital; the Hotel la Paz, now known as the Hotel Hispaniola; and the Hotel Comercial in the Colonial Zone, which was the first privately owned hotel in the country.
Hotel development was not limited to the capital. Several provincial capitals were the site of Trujillo's public works projects. These included the Hotel Matún in Santiago de los Caballeros, the Hotel Guarocuya in Barahona, the Hotel Maguana in San Juan de la Maguana, and the Hotel Montaña in Jarabacoa. The building of the Hotel Macori in the San Pedro de Macorís Province was the first development in the eastern end of the country, which has now become the country's main tourist destination.
In 1955, the Fair of Peace and Fraternity of the Free World (Feria de la Paz y Confraternidad del Mundo Libre) was organized in Ciudad Trujillo, to honour the 25th year of Trujillo's rule. The event was intended to attract international visitors and showcase the development of the country's tourism industry, but attendance was below expectations and foreign investments failed to materialize.
In the 1950s, construction of the Las Américas International Airport took place, along with highway systems to connect it to the capital and better accommodate the country's growing number of tourists. The Cuban Revolution and resultant embargo served to redirect American tourists to Ciudad Trujillo as the Latin American tourism destination of choice. Conversely, political instability and social unrest in the wake of the assassination of the Mirabal Sisters in 1960, the assassination of Trujillo in 1961, and the Dominican Civil War of 1965 and subsequent US military occupation, led to a notable decrease in tourism.
In the post-civil war era, the tourism industry of the country saw an upswing through increased government attention and changes in economic policies. In 1971, the Tourist Incentive Law (Law 153) was passed to create the department for the Development of Tourism Infrastructure (INFRATUR). Its aims were to promote infrastructure projects, encourage private investment, and cooperate with the Ministry of Tourism to further grow the tourism industry. By encouraging private investment through low-interest loans, the Dominican Republic underwent two distinct periods of hotel and resort building that increased the number of hotel rooms from 1,134 in 1970 to over 20,000 by 1990. The country also saw the number of tourists increase from 278,000 in 1975 to over one million visitors by 1987, surpassing traditional Caribbean resort locations.
Tourism in the present day From the 1990s, the Dominican tourism industry has been developed and operated at its fullest, developing more housing complexes, through agreements and foreign advisors. Consequently, the number of hotel rooms in the decade of the 1980s was about 8,562 and the 1990s was 45,000.
In 1997, around 270,830 foreign tourists arrived by sea, of which 156,099 used the ports in Santo Domingo, 5,566 arrived via the port of Puerto Plata, 108,698 disembarked in La Romana, 404 in Samaná and 63 in Boca Chica. This figure compared with those of 1996, it shows that in 1997 the number of foreign visitors who used the waterway increased by over one hundred percent.
In 1996 entered to the country by sea 110.936, an amount that increased to 270,380 cruise passengers. Despite not having any financial incentive for ecotourism, this is in its true splendor. It posed above is confirmed by the annual statistics for visitation to ecotourism businesses and protected areas, which exceed 800,000 people. It quote the following data, for the year 1998: total visitors to ecotourism projects was 930,000.
Increasing competition, for example created by the Asian markets, and a change in the motivation of tourists, now forces authorities managing regions, and tour operators to supplement their offer with new options, not based directly on the sun, sand and sea. Additionally, some Asian markets, for example Thailand, have a very reasonable tax rate for tourist consumption (7%), whereas the Dominican Republic has an extremely high rate (18 to 28%). It has been argued that the Dominican Republic should focus on diversifying its tourism product, so as to prevent elimination from the market by competitors when tourists completely change their preferences by shifting, for example, from 3S to 3E and to focus on industrial and cultural tours such as the road tar mine at la quenera, approximately 10 km south of the Haitian boarder.Rettinger, R., Apollo, M. (2017). Enriching tour–operators' offer to go beyond sea, sun and sand: The case of the Dominican Republic. [In:] R. Efe, M. Öztürk (eds.), Contemporary Studies in Environment and Tourism, Chapter: 5 (pp.60-81). Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Source: books.google.com
Visitor statistics
+Yearly tourist arrivals in millions
Most visitors arriving to Dominican Republic were from the following areas of residence or countries of nationality:
Note: Air arrivals only, it excludes arrivals by land and sea
Country/Territory 2026 (Jan-Jun) 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 Record high *1,557,623 2,707,522 2,763,432 2,578,292 2,004,849 1,655,324 612,433 2,030,257 2,237,519 2024 *660,703 933,196 975,924893,742557,985 123,861 337,297 865,927 892,020 2024 *66,649 121,053129,839134,958 171,409 98,100 37,048 180,567 217,185 1999: *277,468 450,501 281,812211,528 188,837 36,422 39,540 189,211 221,850 2025 *234,556 439,821 374,141343,446 293,564 152,814 35,279 116,812 112,176 2025 *99,637 149,826157,903161,385 217,508 106,490 77,834 219,750 228,629 2003: *63,302 128,882128,142181,164 181,588 117,652 44,998 170,138 163,273 2006: *12,721 22,949 24,120 24,424 113,650 183,700 75,847 217,082 224,064 2017: *116,309 248,322 240,405 226,279 163,709 107,150 36,721 117,039 105,695 2025 *99,838 188,413182,757172,621 188,063 21,213 31,525 158,085 187,492 2006: *27,099 50,420 71,261 99,524 106,602 125,936 34,286 111,576 101,155 2016: *103,480 177,376 132,049 103,633 72,478 45,465 17,718 56,034 44,667 2025 *85,847 157,084 136,057124,36683,968 50,326 29,624 111,260 132,861 2025: *60,738 107,033 100,020 92,214 87,553 35,835 28,614 92,674 82,581 2007: *85,232 145,238 143,935126,737 117,077 34,024 25,653 114,080 114,613 2025 World *4,963,343 (*vs. Jan-Jun 2025) 8,860,709 8,535,701 8,058,6715,805,3493,655,2171,699,194 5,357,619 5,618,561 2025
Weather in Punta Cana The weather in Punta Cana averages between a high of 81 °F to 86 °F. The average rainy days per month is 11.25. Hours of sunshine can vary from 8 to 10 hours. The seawater temperature will vary from 79 °F to 84 °F. The weather is nice year-round which attracts vacationers even in wintery months. Month High Temp Low Temp Rainfall Days with Rain Hrs. Sunshine Temp SeawaterJanuary81 °F72 °F 22 inch10 days9 hours81 °FFebruary82 °F72 °F15.2 inch9 days9 hours79 °FMarch82 °F73 °F19 inch8 days9 hours79 °FApril82 °F73 °F30 inch8 days10 hours81 °FMay84 °F75 °F70 inch11 days9 hours81 °FJune86 °F75 °F60 inch11 days9 hours82 °FJuly86 °F77 °F60 inch13 days10 hours82 °FAugust86 °F77 °F64 inch13 days10 hours84 °FSeptember86 °F77 °F67 inch14 days9 hours84 °FOctober84 °F75 °F64 inch15 days10 hours84 °FNovember84 °F77 °F44 inch12 days8 hours82 °FDecember82 °F73 °F25 inch11 days8 hours81 °F
Tourism in the 2000s until 2009
The country's tourism has become its primary source of income. The country offers a wide choice of accommodations in the city, in the mountains and in the coastal regions. The Dominican Republic is one of the top vacation places for Europe, South America, and the rest of North America. This is because the island's rich history and unique culture.
The main areas of tourist activity in the country are the regions of the East, North, Santo Domingo and Barahona, but nevertheless, there has been an increase in the interior, with many tours on foot or by bike through the mountains and fields. In 2001 the Dominican Republic was visited by over two million people and according to the Central Bank, the Dominican tourism industry has generated 2,103 million dollars, exceeding 1,782 million achieved in the previous year.
According to Central Bank figures, more than 2.5 million tourists arrived by air to the country in 2001, a 10.1% increase over the figure given in 2000. 58% of tourists came from European countries, mostly countries like Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and USA, were recorded countries like the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and among others.
Tourism is one of the most important sectors of the Dominican economy, because this makes great contributions to it. The movements of tourists to other parts of the country involving expenditure, especially when is from a nation to another, that is the case of the country; Foreign tourists usually consume in dollars or exchange their currency for the Dominican peso, this generates an injection of dollars into the economy and thus the country can buy the services and products that do not produce. The country had revenues in 2004 of 2.557 million euros.
The Dominican Republic, thanks to its geographical location in the Caribbean, has many areas that are exploited for tourism.Cabezas, Amalia L. “Tropical Blues: Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic.” Latin American Perspectives, vol. 35, no. 3, 2008, pp. 21–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27648095.|date=January 2019 This includes its beaches and its scenery. The most exploited provinces in terms of tourism are concerned, after the era of Trujillo, are Puerto Plata, La Romana and La Altagracia, also worth noting that the del Este peninsula, is the country's most important tourist area.