LatinNews Daily - 11 June 2024

*The Dominican Republic’s tourism minister, David Collado, has announced that the country received 5.03m visitors in the first five months of the year, a 12% increase on the same period of 2023 and a 49% rise on the first five months of 2022. The figure was comprised of 3.72m tourists (up 10% year-on-year) and 1.31m cruise ship passengers (up 17% year-on-year). Collado stated that May was “an extraordinary month” with 846,735 visitors, up 12% on May 2023 and 45% on May 2019, before the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic disrupted international travel. Collado said that the main source countries of tourists in the first five months of the year were the US, which accounted for 53% of tourists, followed by Canada (11%), Colombia (5%), and Argentina (4%). Collado projects that the Dominican Republic will receive some 11.5m tourists this year, surpassing last year’s record.