Since the departure of the United Kingdom of the European Union, commonly known as Brexiton January 31, 2020, the tourism industry of the Dominican Republic has been on alert for a possible reduction in tourist flow British to the country. After two years of economic difficulties, with the pandemic As an additional ingredient, it was in May 2024 that the figures on the end of the recession emerged and growth economic.
In the period, the flow of visitors British has fluctuated, but maintaining a growth on average.
In the last 10 years, visits from British to the Creole island have been increasing, reaching their peak in 2022, when 197,256 English residents landed for their holidays, according to data provided by the Dominican Central Bank.
Stability in the flow has been maintained with ups and downs, although there has been no shortage of challenges that have constituted a threat to the sustained arrival of visitors English to the Dominican tourist destination: a campaign to discredit the industry turismo in the Dominican Republic; the uncertainty which caused the pre Brexit and the pandemic that generated COVID 19 and paralyzed multiple economic activities for months, including the turismo.
Evolution of the arrival of tourists British
Over the past 10 years, the turismo coming from the United Kingdom has been increasing. Dominican Republicwith its work in infrastructure to attract the turismois getting results. However, it has not been a perfect 10 years. The country has faced some challenges that have meant ups and downs in terms of British who arrive on the island.
From 2015 to 2018, the arrival of English residents to the DR rose exponentially, year after year. It went from 140,232 in 2015 to 185,929 in 2018. That is, a difference of 40,000 tourists further.
2019 and 2020
After these four years of a gradual increase, both Dominican Republic like the country British suffered difficult situations. In the case of the Caribbean island, there was a smear campaign that affected the turismo. News stories were published in international media about foreigners who had died while on holiday. New York Timesaround 2019, published this note: “The deaths of tourists in Dominican Republic: This is what we know.” Meanwhile, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo headlined: “Mystery surrounds the death of several tourists in Dominican Republic“These news stories were reported in the press in dozens of countries. Speculation and rumours led many foreigners to choose other destinations.
This is not the only thing that happened in 2019. That year, in addition, was the one that preceded the BrexitThe atmosphere in British society was dominated by a great uncertainty caused by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s mandate, the elections to leave the European Union and an uncertain future.
These two factors, the smear campaign and the pre-election environment, Brexitmade 30,000 arrive in 2010 tourists less than the previous year.
In March 2020, the world stopped. So did the United Kingdom y Dominican Republic. The pandemic COVID-19 made the turismo They stopped dead. They stopped coming tourists to the country. In 2020, only 29,883 English people arrived, and the following year the number dropped to 17,777.
However, after the storm also comes the calm. After two years of restrictions and lockdowns, in 2022 the doors of the turismo y Dominican Republic recorded the highest figure of tourists British of the last 10 years. There were 197,256 English residents who visited the Creole island. This could be explained by the desire of people to travel after having spent a long period of time in their country, limited in their movement.
After this “boom” of turismocalm came. The country again recorded the usual figures of turismo British in 2023. There were 175,769 English people who chose Dominican Republic as your holiday destination.
Now, in 2024, after ten years of growthBritain announces to its citizens and the world that the country is “bankrupt and broken,” with a public deficit of 20 billion pounds ($26 billion). Will this be a blow that affects the turismo British to the country?
Spanish journalist and writer. Graduated from the University of Navarra.
