Santo Domingo.- At the close of 2023, the dominican bank played a pivotal role in driving the tourism sector’s development with a credit portfolio surpassing RD$105,500 million (US$1,824.5). These funds were instrumental in financing hotel projects and associated businesses.
According to the preliminary version of the Annual Report on Banking and Tourism from the Superintendency of Banks (SB), the portfolio dedicated to this sector witnessed a growth of 6.7% compared to 2022.
As of December 2023, tourism accounted for 10.6% of loans in the private commercial portfolio. This segment boasted 20,494 unique debtors and 24,004 loans within the financial system, marking year-on-year increases of 5.5% and 7.2%, respectively.
When examining interest rates in foreign currency, it becomes apparent that tourism enjoys an annual financing cost of 7.59%, slightly lower than the 7.62% seen in the rest of the private sector.
In terms of risk, it stands out as the second portfolio with the lowest delinquency rate in the financial system, with only 0.17% of the debt overdue. Moreover, approximately 23.1% of the total capital owed in the tourism portfolio is secured with rateable guarantees. This signifies that for every RD$1 of capital lent in the system, there are RD$4.3 in backup guarantees.
Consequently, credit to this sector has consistently grown, maintaining an average nominal rate of 14.2% over the last five years.
Segmenting loans by currency type reveals that 87.9% of the tourism portfolio is denominated in US dollars, constituting 23.4% of the total foreign currency portfolio in the financial system.
Commercial banks dominate the tourist credit portfolio with a 98% participation rate. Additionally, 91% of tourism financing is concentrated among the three major banks with the highest asset amounts.
The report underscores the sector’s significance in the economy, as hotels, bars, and restaurants contribute nearly 6.8% to the gross domestic product (GDP) and employ 8.1% of the workforce in the Dominican Republic.