NewsWhore
10-05-2009, 11:50 AM
During the January-August period, the DR saw 67,000 fewer tourists than the year before, a 2.2% decrease. The main reason for the low numbers was a 1.1% decline in visitors during August. Yet, despite these shortcomings, predictions six months ago were far worse. According to Diario Libre, tourist arrivals from the United States, Canada, Russia, Portugal and Argentina have increased: in fact there were 22,000 more tourists from Canada and the United States in August than the previous year.
Tourism from the United States has been up for the past four months and in August it grew by 14%, with nearly 900,000 visitors so far this year, a 1.58% increase over 2008. This is due, in part, to the fact that travel to Europe is expensive and the weak dollar makes European travel less attractive than a tropical paradise. The outbreak of the AH1N1 influenza in the Mexican resort of Cancun also sent tourists to the DR. Tourism from Canada is up this year with over 500,000 visitors. As a matter of fact, data for the past three years, 2006, 2007 and 2008, shows that 2009 has been slightly better than 2007 or 2006. Russian visitors are up15% and tourists from France, after 10 straight months of decline, went up slightly in August.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)
Tourism from the United States has been up for the past four months and in August it grew by 14%, with nearly 900,000 visitors so far this year, a 1.58% increase over 2008. This is due, in part, to the fact that travel to Europe is expensive and the weak dollar makes European travel less attractive than a tropical paradise. The outbreak of the AH1N1 influenza in the Mexican resort of Cancun also sent tourists to the DR. Tourism from Canada is up this year with over 500,000 visitors. As a matter of fact, data for the past three years, 2006, 2007 and 2008, shows that 2009 has been slightly better than 2007 or 2006. Russian visitors are up15% and tourists from France, after 10 straight months of decline, went up slightly in August.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#11)