In a recent televised interview on Color Visión’s *Hoy Mismo* program, Juan Bancalari, head of the Dominican Hotel and Tourism Association (Asonahores), outlined a shifting landscape for the country’s tourism sector, highlighted by a surprising boom in unregulated short-term accommodation and broad-based growth across non-traditional tourist hubs.
Bancalari revealed that short-term rental platforms led by Airbnb have expanded far faster than industry analysts predicted in the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo. Today, the number of active Airbnb listings in the city surpasses the total count of available rooms offered by traditional brick-and-mortar hotels. This dramatic growth has created a new dynamic for the country’s hospitality sector, prompting Asonahores to outline a clear, collaborative position on the emerging segment: the trade group does not oppose the rise of short-term rentals, but it is calling for formal government regulation to level the playing field and protect consumers. Bancalari emphasized that regulation is necessary to enforce consistent safety protocols, maintain minimum quality standards for accommodation, and ensure all short-term rental operators meet full tax compliance obligations, closing gaps that currently give unregulated platforms an unfair advantage over licensed hotels.
Beyond the conversation about short-term rentals, Bancalari underscored the increasingly critical role tourism plays in driving the Dominican Republic’s national economy, noting the industry is expanding well beyond its historic core in the country’s eastern coastal resort regions. He highlighted three emerging tourism destinations that are already delivering significant economic returns, with more growth on the horizon.
First, the northern province of Puerto Plata has emerged as a major cruise tourism hub, welcoming nearly 2 million cruise ship passengers each year. Visitors to the province spend an average of more than $100 per person during their stops, injecting an estimated $200 million into local businesses and supporting thousands of local jobs across retail, food service, and transportation. He also pointed to the fast-growing resort region of Miches, where approximately 3,000 new hotel rooms are currently under construction as major hospitality investors bet on the area’s future growth. Finally, the coastal destination of Samaná is on track to welcome up to 1 million annual visitors by 2030, as infrastructure investments and marketing efforts draw more international travelers to the area.
This combination of disruptive growth in short-term accommodation and geographic expansion of the broader tourism sector signals a period of rapid transformation for the Dominican Republic’s most economically important industries, with policymakers now facing pressure to update regulatory frameworks to match the changing market.