LatinNews Daily - 15 October 2020

* The Dominican Republic’s central bank (BCRD) has released new figures which show 103,942 tourists (defined as foreign nationals and non-resident Dominicans) visited the country via air travel in September, a 67.9% drop on the same month in 2019. The decline was mainly explained by an 81.3% drop in the number of foreign nationals, which totalled 46,877. However, the BCRD highlights “incipient signs of recovery” for the sector as the decline in foreign tourist arrivals is less than that registered in August when the number (50,068) was down 87.4% on the same month in 2019. According to the latest BCRD figures, a total of 1.94m tourists visited the country via air travel in the first nine months of 2020, down 64.7% on the same period in 2019. The BCRD attributes the slump to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, particularly in the second quarter of 2020, when borders were closed, and non-essential travel limited in the DR as well as its main source countries for tourists. The DR’s tourism sector, which resumed operations on 15 September, accounts for around 8% of GDP.

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