Without the opening to Asia-Pacific tourism and the slow recovery due to the health crisis, Russian airlines and tour operators are turning their attention to the Caribbean region, where the Dominican Republic has monopolized most of the routes.
See also: Without Asia-Pacific, Russian airlines turn to Latin America and the Caribbeansia-Pacifico
The Dominican Republic received 365,545 foreign travelers in September, 12% higher than in the same month of 2019, according to information obtained through the Ministry of Tourism.
In September, the country welcomed 3,694 commercial flights from 87 airlines, arriving from 43 countries. The number of flight bookings from October to December 2021 already exceeds the figures for the identical period of 2019.
Russia highlighted itself as the main receptive city pair of the Dominican Republic. Between January and August, it carried 9592 tourists. This is not surprising, since this was when the country began to accept charters from Russia, offered by tour operators like Coral Travel, ANEX Tour, PEGAS Touristik, and Intourist.
The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) is optimistic for this coming high season. In terms of sales, the Caribbean country is in the ranking TOP 3, and already accounts for 50% of sales. The Dominican Republic must compete with other highly demanded tourist destinations such as Turkey and Egypt.
“In terms of sales for the period of the November vacations, the Dominican Republic ranks second after Egypt. For the New Year vacations, today Dominican Republic is leading in terms of the number of bookings,” shared ANEX Tour press service.
“There is demand for New Year vacations, there are requests for New Year programs in hotels. But, of course, this demand is not yet even comparable to what it was in the same period of 2019, ” Coral Travel said.
PEGAS Touristik is also satisfied with sales in the Dominican Republic, as they show a good dynamic.
“For the November vacations, more than half of the flights to Punta Cana have already been sold. More than 40% of the sales correspond to the New Year dates. Bookings continue growing up to April 2022,” commented PEGAS Touristik.
Timeline of the Autumn-Winter 2021/22 Season between Russia and the Dominican Republic.
PEGAS Touristik has flights to Punta Cana from 7 cities (including Moscow/Sheremetyevo): Krasnoyarsk (KJA), Kazan (KZN), St. Petersburg (LED), Novosibirsk (OVB), Yekaterinburg (SVX), Ufa (UFA).
It also has direct operations between Samana (AZS) and Puerto Plata (POP) to Sheremetyevo (SVO).
Flights are operated on Nordwind Airlines’ Boeing 777-200ERs configured for 440 passengers and its Boeing 777-300ERs with 486 seats. Last October 11 marked a record for the Dominican Republic with the inaugural flight from Krasnoyarsk, being the longest flight time and route connection in the country’s history. The Boeing 777 traveled 11,550 kilometers in a time of 14 hours and 40 minutes; on this first flight, it transported 440 Russian tourists.
Coral Travel’s program will start at the end of October, connecting to Punta Cana from Ekaterinburg (SVX) from November 4, Kazan (KZN) from November 6, St. Petersburg (LED) from October 29, Samara (KUF) from November 2, Ufa (UFA) from October 31.
From October 27, the carrier will increase its current flights from Moscow/Sheremetyevo (SVO) from twice to three times a week.
The entire program will be operated by Royal Flight on a Boeing 777-300ER seating 492 passengers, of which 14 are in business class.
The ANEX Tour flight schedule is operated by AZUR Air with Boeing 777-300ER, with a capacity of 531 passengers. It has one of the most extensive networks in the Dominican territory.
Currently, it operates a daily flight from Moscow/Vnukovo (VNK) to Punta Cana, as well as from that Dominican city to St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don (ROV), Novosibirsk, and Ufa. The 7 Russian cities also connect with La Romana (LRM).
Lastly, Aeroflot resumed operations to Punta Cana with up to three flights per week on its Airbus A350-900 with a capacity of 316 passengers.
