Tourist Arrivals in Dominican Republic on the Rise

Foreign tourist arrivals in the Dominican Republic increased 3.6 percent during the first nine months of 2008, in contrast to the same period last year.

According to statistics from the tourism sector, 2,729,996 foreign vacationers arrived in the country from January to September 2008.

Experts noted a 1.8-percent rise in the number of tourists from major sending markets, especially Canada, the United States and France. Middle-sized markets such as Belgium, Portugal, Chile and Argentina grew 8.8 percent during the same period.

By countries, the main sending markets were Russia (87.4 percent), Chile (40.4 percent), Argentina (34.9 percent), Brazil (28.7 percent) and Mexico (16.3 percent).