David Collado meets with travel agencies and tour operators in Argentina

The event took place at the Faena Art Center and brought together a large number of attendees and industry leaders.

The Dominican Republic made a great presentation in Buenos Aires, with a large number of operators, travel agents, industry representatives and personnel from the country’s embassy in Argentina.

The event took place at the Faena Art Center, where David Collado, Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic; Jacqueline Mora, Technical Vice-Minister of Tourism; Rhina Olivares, Director of the Dominican Republic Tourism Office in Argentina; and Gustavo Hernando Castillo, Dominican Ambassador in our country (Argentina) were present.

During the day, which included a welcome cocktail and dinner, Mora and Collado, each in turn, provided the auspicious data of a thorough survey conducted by the Ministry of Tourism in the last year, in addition to announcing projects and initiatives related to the tourism infrastructure of the destination.

Increase of tourists in the Dominican Republic

In that sense, it is worth noting that the Dominican Republic broke the record of visits in the first quarter of 2023, a period in which 2,076,170 tourists arrived by air, which meant 11% more than in 2019, 90% more than in 2021 and 21% more than in 2022.

Likewise, it experienced a considerable increase in March, with the arrival of 740,324 tourists by air, presenting a growth of 10% compared to the same month of2019 and 20% compared to last year.

On the other hand, it was reported that during the same month the Dominican Republic received 280,247 cruise passengers, surpassing March 2022, when 134,070 visitors arrived by sea.

“If we add the 740,324 tourists who arrived by air to the 280,247 cruise passengers, we are talking that in March alone we received 1,020,571 visitors, something never experienced in a single month,” said Collado.

Best tourist quarter in history

For his part, Mora emphasized: “We are talking about the fact that from January to March of this year we received 2,076,171 tourists by air and 806,527 cruise passengers, or 2,882,698 visitors in the first quarter, which makes it the best three-month period in our tourism history”.

Within this framework, the directive added: “We want to increase the number of allies in the region and in Argentina, for which we have to take into account several factors of the current trends of travelers and the particular tastes of the new generations”.

In this regard, Collado stated: “Although it may sound exaggerated, we want to double the number of Argentine tourists who choose us, and we are working in that direction. In this first quarter, Argentina was the third largest outbound market behind the United States and Canada, which clearly shows its importance”.

The report presented indicated that the average hotel occupancy rate in the destination has remained at 80%, while surveys on the level of satisfaction of travelers showed that 95% of them would vacation in the Dominican Republic again.

Hotel projects and new destinations

Another point highlighted by Collado was the ongoing projects of several prestigious hotel chains and the development of two new destinations: Miches and Punta Bergantin, the latter in Puerto Plata.

“In addition, we are constantly targeting the golf segment, for which we offer more than 25 excellent courses; and also ecotourism and cultural tourism.”

Finally, Collado affirmed that “the idea is to end 2023 having received 7.8 million tourists, if no extraordinary event occurs.”

To conclude, it is worth mentioning that, in the middle of the meeting, in which a climate of high camaraderie reigned at all times, a large number of raffles were held for stays in hotels of Viva Wyndham, Iberostar, Grand Sirenis, Hard Rock Hotel, Bahia Principe, Meliá, Riu, and Tortuga Bay Hotel, most of which included Copa Airlines airline tickets.