by Brian Major
Last updated: 12:25 PM ET, Mon January 6, 2014
PHOTO: The DominIcan Republic's Samana Bay. (photo by Brian Major)
Tourism to the Dominican Republic continued its recent run of steady growth, with a 3 percent increase in tourist arrivals in 2013, said Francisco Javier Garcia, the country's tourism minister, in local press reports. Garcia predicted 2014 will produce an "unprecedented" fifth straight year of increased tourist arrivals.
The Dominican Republic recorded 3.66 million foreign air arrivals between January and November of 2013, including 2.08 million travelers from North America, according to data from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic.
The 2013 statistics represent a 3.8 percent increase over the 3.56 million visitors recorded during the same period in 2012. Garcia noted the 2013 increase came despite snow storms that impacted travelers in the key North American market.
Garcia's comments come as the destination prepares for next week's launch of the destination's annual whale-watching season. Each year thousands of North Atlantic Humpback whales migrate from the Gulf of Maine and the eastern coasts of Canada, Greenland and Iceland to reproduce in the Dominican Republic's Samana Bay.
Tours to whale-watching sites along Samana Bay's beaches will be offered by operators in Punta Cana, La Romana and other tourist districts.
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