Santo Domingo. – The Tourism Cabinet agreed with ASONAHORES and hotel representatives to guarantee the stay of Ukrainian and Russian tourists residing in the country in these holiday centers, until a definitive solution to their situation is found, after the conflicts that have arisen in their countries.

The decision was made in light of a meeting of the Tourism Cabinet, chaired by Minister David Collado, which was convened as a state of emergency to discuss this issue exclusively.

According to the preliminary survey, there are currently a total of 16,927 visitors with Russian or Ukrainian residences in the country, most of them staying in different hotels.

As for the 14,806 Russian tourists living in La Altagracia, with a smaller group in Santo Domingo, the repatriation process has been agreed with Russia’s main tour operators in the coming days for their return.

Regarding Ukrainian visitors, the country’s main tour operators have identified a total of 1,903 people still in the country, 1,688 of whom are adults and 215 children. They stay in their respective hotels, where they will stay until there is a solution to return to their homes.

Similarly, at the Tourism Cabinet meeting, it was agreed to carry out operations at the hotels in the next 48 hours to verify the special needs of each family.

During the meeting, Minister Collado explained that for the “Dominican Government and the Tourism Cabinet, the safety and well-being of all tourists is a priority.”

He also stated that both the private tourism sector and the Government will do everything necessary so that families from Russia and Ukraine feel our warmth, security and support in this situation.

The official again called the Tourism Cabinet to follow up on the steps that had been taken and saw the results of the survey conducted and made a decision on the spot.

During 2021 Russia and Ukraine accounted for more than 244,000 passengers, and during January and February 2022 they totaled 109,110 passengers. This means 10% of the country’s tourism.

The impact of this decline will be offset by the reactivation of different traditional markets such as Canada, France, UK and South American countries.

In fact, in the last 6 months Canada experienced an increase from 10,620 monthly passengers to more than 50,000 passengers in February, while France rose from 5,844 to 32,503 in February and Britain from 442 to 12,473 passengers.

Arrival diversity is one of the great strengths of our goal, meaning that the impact of the current situation could be mitigated in the coming months, with the year-end forecast being larger than the pre-pandemic period.

The public-private emergency committee in the permanent session identified specific actions for this remedy.