Preclearance facilities for travelers returning from
the Dominican Republic will open at Punta Cana's airport in May 2017, enabling them to avoid the customs-and-immigration line after their flight lands in the U.S.
There are currently preclearance facilities in the
Caribbean at airports in Aruba, the Bahamas (Nassau and Freeport) and Bermuda.
Punta Cana's airport welcomed 66% of the 5.6 million
visitors to the country in 2016, according to Radames Martinez Aponte, vice
minister of tourism, who spoke at the opening session of the Dominican Annual Tourism
Exchange this week in Punta Cana.
“We have long hoped for preclearance facilities for
our U.S. visitors, who constitute our largest visitor market to the Dominican
Republic,” Martinez Aponte said.