During the 2026 Asonahores Trade Show in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic Hotel and Tourism Association (Asonahores) released comprehensive 2025 data that solidifies tourism’s position as the cornerstone of the Dominican national economy. When combining direct, indirect, and induced economic ripple effects, the sector contributed an estimated US$21.62 billion to the country’s output, accounting for 15.9% of the Dominican Republic’s total annual Gross Domestic Product. Direct contributions from core tourism activities alone made up 8.3% of national GDP in 2025, with the additional 7.6% coming from secondary economic activity spurred by tourism spending.
Asonahores President Juan Bancalari noted that the latest figures confirm the tourism sector’s ability to drive broad-based national growth that extends far beyond hotels, resorts and travel-focused businesses, delivering tangible benefits to nearly every segment of the Dominican productive economy.
Beyond GDP contributions, the sector delivered strong growth across multiple key economic metrics in 2025. It generated US$11.866 billion in foreign exchange earnings, marking a 9.3% increase from the 2024 total. It also attracted US$1.288 billion in foreign direct investment, reinforcing its standing as one of the country’s top destinations for international capital inflows.
Employment data from Asonahores also highlights tourism’s outsized role in supporting Dominican livelihoods. In 2025, tourism-related activity supported a total of 882,419 direct, indirect, and induced jobs across the country – equal to roughly one out of every six positions in the national workforce. Of these total jobs, 301,800 were direct roles within hotels, resorts and travel services; 400,610 were indirect positions created through tourism supply chains for goods and services; and the remaining 180,010 were induced jobs tied to household consumer spending by workers across the tourism sector.
The sector also delivered improvements for worker compensation and public social investment. Average insurable wages for workers in hotels, bars, and restaurants rose from RD$22,705 to RD$27,580 in 2025, and the sector contributed RD$10.774 billion to the national Social Security Treasury over the year.
A decade-long analysis of tax contributions further underscores the sector’s rapidly growing importance to Dominican public finances. In 2025, total tax revenues generated by hotels, bars and restaurants reached RD$45.227 billion – nearly three times the RD$15.611 billion the sector generated in 2015.
Asonahores emphasized that tourism’s economic footprint ripples outward to support a wide range of complementary Dominican industries, including domestic agriculture, fishing, local manufacturing, construction, retail and wholesale commerce, transportation and logistics, utilities and basic services, and professional and financial services, making it a critical engine for inclusive national development.