Diversifying tourism offerings, key to attracting more Italians to the Dominican Republic

Dominican tourism needs to focus on diversifying its offer in order to attract more Italian tourists, who in recent years have decreased their presence in the country.

According to the Italian ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Stefano Queirolo Palmas, the country must diversify its tourism offer and offer more than beaches and all-inclusive hotels, such as gastronomic, adventure and religious tourism.

Tourists from Italy to the Dominican Republic went from 200,000 visitors per year to less than 100,000 in recent years. In 2022, 87,553 tourists arrived in the country.

Queirolo Palmas explained that the Italian tourist is inclined to adventure tourism and other types of tourism, beyond the all-inclusive, which is why together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mirex) they are holding a workshop on gastronomic tourism.

He indicated that this is a bilateral “experiment program” that they hope will work as it does in Italy, according to Acento.

“If it diversifies it will surely enter a more advanced phase; it is a beautiful country (Dominican Republic) that has so much to offer, not only beach, not only all-inclusive”, he said.

He said that by managing to diversify the offer, the country would attract more tourists not only from Italy, but from other parts of Europe and the world.

The ambassador pointed out that each Italian tourist spends an average of 1,200 euros during his stay in the country, for a total of around 100 million euros.

Out of a total of 8.4 million tourists arriving in the country, 1.4 million are Europeans. From Germany 25%, Spain 26.5%, France 31.7%, Italy 12.8% and the Netherlands 4.1%.