✺ The context
Tourism supports one in six jobs in the country. Who fills those jobs?
11.6 million visitors in 2025, 1,500 new rooms authorised in Las Terrenas and more than 876,000 jobs. The data on the country’s biggest employer, and the question it leaves open.
The record year
In 2025 the Dominican Republic received 11.6 million visitors: 8.8 million by air and 2.8 million by cruise ship. It is the highest figure in the country's history, 4.3% above 2024 and 37.8% more than in 2022.
Behind every arrival there is a bed to make, a plate to serve, an excursion to guide. The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that the sector contributed USD 20.5 billion to the Dominican economy in 2024, 16.1% of GDP, and supported more than 876,000 jobs: 17.6% of all the country's workers. For 2025 it projected 893,000 jobs, and close to 980,000 by 2035.
Source: Ministry of Tourism and Central Bank, January 2026; WTTC, Economic Impact Research — Dominican Republic, 2025.
How many jobs that is, depending on who counts
The WTTC figures include direct, indirect and induced jobs. The Central Bank's labour force survey counts only those working directly in hotels, bars and restaurants, and even so the number is striking.
414,597 people
- Employed in hotels, bars and restaurants, average of the four quarters to March 2025.
1 in 12
- Share of all the country's employed who work in that activity.
+9.6%
- Growth in the value added of hotels, bars and restaurants in 2024, one of the most dynamic activities in the economy.
They hire close to home
- The Central Bank observes that formal tourism demand is concentrated in the East and North of the country, and that there "hiring of local staff and nearby areas is favoured".
Source: Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, Quarterly Labour Market Bulletin, January–March 2025; preliminary results of the Dominican economy 2024.
What is coming towards Las Terrenas
Samaná is not Punta Cana, and it shows at the airports: 41,253 passengers came through El Catey between January and November 2025, against almost five million through Punta Cana. Whoever comes to Las Terrenas almost always arrives by the motorway from Santo Domingo.
That is changing in scale.
1,500 rooms authorised
- Permits issued by the Ministry of Tourism for new hotels in Las Terrenas, with brands such as St. Regis and Ritz-Carlton. July 2025.
2,853 more rooms in the pipeline
- Two developments, Blu Terrenas and The Reef Noval, received provisional classification from CONFOTUR in February 2024.
RD$500 million in works
- Public investment planned for 2025 and 2026 in the area, on top of the 1,845 million already spent.
Plan before growing
- The minister proposed developing the area with territorial planning so as not to repeat Bávaro's disorderly growth.
Every hotel room needs people: front desk, kitchen, housekeeping, maintenance, bar, excursions. The question is not whether there will be jobs in Las Terrenas in the coming years. It is who will fill them.
Source: Central Bank, arrivals by airport, January–November 2025; Ministry of Tourism, 25 July 2025; CONFOTUR, 14 February 2024.
The part of the data that does not make the press release
Tourism has been the country's engine for more than a decade. An analysis commissioned by USAID in 2019 recalled that these activities "do not require highly skilled labor": the sector can grow by hiring cheaply, without raising wages or careers.
And there is a second gap. When formal employment grows, it grows for those with an education: in the first quarter of 2025, 89,721 of the new formal jobs went to people with university education and 78,409 to people with secondary education. The young person who left school watches that growth from outside, even if the hotel is two blocks from home.
In a town about to add thousands of rooms, that gap is a decision: import staff, or train the people from here.
Source: USAID, Rapid Education and Risk Analysis — Dominican Republic, 2019; Central Bank, Quarterly Labour Market Bulletin, January–March 2025.
Training the people from here
Our answer fits on one line: nine local tourism trades, 12 weeks, free, with practice in real companies and groups of no more than 12.
Food and beverage
- Kitchen, bar and table service. Where tips can double the base salary.
Hospitality
- Front desk, guest relations, housekeeping. The clearest promotion ladder.
Local tourism
- Guiding, activity coordination, selling tourism products. The most seasonal, and the one that lends itself most to running your own business.
The pay for each trade is published in another article in this series. How to take on an intern, in another. If you are between 18 and 22 and live in Las Terrenas, the next step is yours.