The Dominican Republic drew a total of 1,780,234 visitors by air in the first quarter of 2011, representing a growth of 5.24% over the same period of 2010 and the best performance of the last three years for that period. In April alone non-resident visits were 330,697, representing a growth of 14.02% over the same month in 2010, registering 46,488 additional visitors, while non-resident Dominicans reached a growth of 14.34%, increasing by 5,014 more visitors. 

The most significant markets contributing to this growth in April were the United States, with 16,381 visits, France with 4,565, Russia with 3,618, Brazil with 3,465, and Germany with 2,925. Other visitors included Argentina, Italy, Venezuela, Chile and Colombia. According to the Minister of Tourism for the Dominican Republic, most of the traffic came into Punta Cana airport which continued to receive most of the tourists visiting the country in the first four months of this year, reaching 906,928 non-resident visitors, an increase of 12, 62% over the same period of 2010.

Source: http://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com, May 16, 2011