New Five Percent Tax Poised to Hit Dominican Tourism Hard

The five percent tax on hotel rooms proposed by the government, added to a two percent tax over luxury housing and vacant lots (IVSS), will affect local tourism demand as well as purchases of tourism real estate, according to estimations.

The tourism real estate demand is one of the industry’s items that is currently on a rise in the country, with such projects as Cap Cana, Roko Ki, Playa Grande, Punta Cana Beach Resort, all meant for higher income markets in pursuit of elevating the country’s hotel quality, according to anonymous sources.

The impact that tourism has in creating new jobs is very broad in the country, whereby it currently affords 19.8 percent of the direct and indirect job posts to the economy –that is, one out of every five posts. Tourism direct employment represents 6.6 percent of the economy’s total employment figure.