Tourism and Transport

Dominican Republic has many attractions which are visited by millions of tourists each year from the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America amongst others.

Among its main tourist areas are Punta Cana, Bavaro, Puerto Plata, Bayahibe, Sosua, Cabarete, Rio San Juan, Samana, Las Terrenas, Santo Domingo, Juan Dolio, Boca Chica, Jarabacoa, Constanza, La Romana, the Eagles Bay ( Pedernales) and Barahona amongst others.

The number of foreign visitors by air in 2001 has doubled since 1994. In that period, and by 2007 the number of available rooms reached 64,640. Similarly the arrival of tourists throughout the area in 2007 reached 3,943,359.

Transportation

Nearly all transportation is by road. There are no railways in the Dominican Republic, except those used for sugar cane to the mill sites. El Metro de Santo Domingo is the urban transport system which runs from the Centro de los Heroes (the nation) to Villa Mella (Provincia de Santo Domingo).

In the Dominican Republic, the transport of cargo is via trucks of all sizes across roads scattered throughout the country, but all are aimed directly or indirectly at the city Santo Domingo.

Foreign trade is carried out through maritime transport (the principal) and air, except for Haiti, the preferred method of transportation to the neighboring country is by road.

There are several international ports in the country such as the Port of Haina near Santo Domingo, Haina River in the province of San Cristobal.

The principal airport in terms of freight transport is the Las Americas International Airport near Santo Domingo and the Cibao International Airport, near the city of Santiago de los Caballeros.

Virtually all non-urban passenger transport in the country is via buses.  In some communities that have limited transport of passengers, they use cars, motorbikes and vans instead of buses. Virtually no domestic transport is by sea, except for crossing the Bay of Samana, Samana between Savannah and the Sea.

Urban passenger transport, in addition to the buses of various sizes in the major cities, are the cars of shells, which are cars driven on specific routes but stop at any point on the routes to stop and collect passengers.  In late 2008, the City entered into service on Metro de Santo Domingo, with its first route from the community of Villa Mella to the Center of the Heroes, South of the Dominican capital.

Across the country, especially in rural areas, there are motoconchos, motorcycles carrying passengers a relatively short distance. There are places where you normally do not pass by bus or conchos.

In large cities there are taxis, similar to other countries but without taxi meters which charge a fee determined by the company or by agreement with the passenger depending on the distance and time.