The Dominican Republic Reached 10 Million Tourists in 2023. What Comes Next?

Recently, the Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic, David Collado, together with representatives of the sector, reported on the growth of the industry with concrete data.

They spoke of an increase of more than 36 percent in relation to the year 2019 and more than 300 thousand tourists above the goal that had been established, -to bring 10 million visitors at the end of last year-.

President Luis Abinader, was present at this event, and was seen smiling and happy with the results, when Collado said that only in the January-December period the country received 10,306,517 visitors by air and sea.

Hence, the words of the President when he spoke were of gratitude to the Cabinet of Tourism.

As 2024 begins an election year and with many challenges for this Government, the question would be what is the next challenge for the tourism sector? It is well known that Minister Collado is a man who takes on challenges and after reaching the goal set to bring in the 10 million visitors that the visionary and father of Dominican tourism, Angel Miolan, once wanted and could not achieve, leads one to think about the next conquest for this thriving sector.

There are destinations yet to be developed and impacted such as Miches, a beautiful place that few Dominicans know in depth, which needs conditions for that to happen, for example, the locals are asking for a San Pedro de Macoris-Miches road, to save two hours of travel time.

And on the other hand, there is a tourism that could have a greater dimension starting from the intervention that is being done in some works, it is about religious tourism, counting that we have in the country important sanctuaries, just to mention a few, the Primada Cathedral of Santo Domingo, the Basilica of Higüey, La Isabela church in Puerto Plata, where the first mass in the new world was held. The Santo Cerro Sanctuary in La Vega, among others.

David Collado has already proclaimed that "religious tourism will break this 2024", when he showed the progress of the new Tourist Boulevard of Higuey. Recently, the specialized travel portal Tripadvisor, placed the Dominican Republic in first place in the list of the 10 most popular tourist destinations in the Caribbean. The positive news certifies the progress of the sector and makes us wonder what will be the next challenge?