Dominican Republic pitches Central American and Caribbean Games as reason to visit

Tourism and sports officials from the Dominican Republic traveled to Miami this week with a message for South Florida residents: Come for the Central American and Caribbean Games, then stay to explore the Dominican Republic.

The country will host the 25th edition of the regional competition from July 24 through Aug. 8, bringing about 6,200 athletes from 37 countries to Santo Domingo and several other cities. The event will feature 40 sports, according to the organizing committee.

The competition marks 100 years since the first Central American and Caribbean Games were held in 1926. It will be the third time the Dominican Republic serves as host.

At a news conference at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami on Monday, officials cast the games as part of a broader effort to diversify the country’s tourism industry.

José Monegro, president of the Santo Domingo 2026 organizing committee, said the event will be the largest Central American and Caribbean Games held to date. He attributed the scale in part to competitions that will serve as qualifiers for the 2027 Pan American Games, drawing larger delegations than the regional event has hosted in previous years.

Along with the athletes, about 3,000 coaches, judges and other officials are expected to participate, Monegro said. The organizing committee also plans to deploy 4,000 volunteers selected from more than 10,000 applicants.

“The Central American and Caribbean Games are not only a celebration for the athletes; they are a celebration for the country,” Monegro said.

Organizers have renovated several facilities originally built or used for earlier international events, including the Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium, the aquatics center and a volleyball complex. Monegro said the upgrades were intended to leave the country with venues capable of hosting future regional and international competitions.

The athletes’ village consists of 1,200 apartments in a private housing development, Monegro said. The government will use the units during the competition before they are turned over to buyers, avoiding the cost of building a permanent village solely for the event.

The games will extend beyond the capital of Santo Domingo. Soccer matches are scheduled in Santiago, La Vega and Moca, while golf will be held in Punta Cana. Organizers also pointed to events in Bonao, Cabarete, Sosúa and Baní as opportunities to introduce visitors to destinations outside the capital.

Monegro described the logistics as one of the largest challenges the country has faced in staging a sporting event. The Dominican Republic hasn’t hosted a multisport competition of comparable scale since the 2003 Pan American Games.

Tourism Minister David Collado used the Miami appearance to encourage visitors to build vacations around the competition. A traveler could attend events in Santo Domingo, he said, then visit the Colonial City, drive to La Romana or spend several days in Punta Cana.

“With the excuse of the games, I invite all Latin Americans to take advantage of this opportunity and visit the Dominican Republic,” Collado said.

The pitch reflects the government’s effort to develop sports tourism as a larger part of the country’s economy. Collado said the ministry has created a public-private committee to identify and support major sporting events that could attract international visitors.

The Dominican Republic recorded more than 11.7 million visitors in 2025 and expects between 12 million and 12.5 million this year, according to government figures. The United States remains its largest source, Collado said, while arrivals from Latin American countries have grown as the ministry has increased promotion in the region.

Collado said the capital regional area has more than 9,000 hotel rooms, along with thousands of short-term rental units. He also said tourism officials will use arrival data to measure how many people traveled specifically for the games, rather than relying only on projections made before the opening ceremony.

Officials offered different estimates of the event’s tourism impact during the news conference. Monegro said the games could draw between 200,000 and 300,000 visitors, while Collado said the ministry expected a directly measurable impact of more than 100,000 people. Neither estimate was accompanied by detailed methodology.

The Dominican government has committed billions of pesos to preparing for the Games. The event was awarded an initial organizational budget of $185 million, although Monegro said the committee expects to reduce that figure by more than 30% by renovating existing facilities instead of building new ones.

President Luis Abinader said in February that his government had transferred 3.9 billion Dominican pesos — about $66 million — for the Games during 2025 and the first months of 2026. Separately, public records obtained by the Dominican newspaper Diario Libre identified about 3.8 billion pesos in planned work on 15 venues at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center and Parque del Este. The amounts cover different parts of the preparations and shouldn’t be combined as a single total.

The Games will open at Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium on July 24 and conclude Aug. 8.