Arajet, based in Santo Domingo, will become the first airline to eliminate the Tourist Card (Tarjeta de Turista) fee for Dominican Republic nationals and foreign residents. The company has already begun implementing the change in its reservation system.
From Resolution 217-2022, the Junta de Aviación Civil (JAC), the body responsible for regulating civil aviation in the country, ordered companies that transport passengers to and from the Dominican Republic to adapt their computer systems to eliminate the tax on the fare composition of tickets.
At the end of September last year, José Ernesto Marte Piantini, president of the JAC, had announced that operators should eliminate the extra charge for all nationals, as well as foreigners residing in the Dominican Republic. The current deadline for the implementation of the resolution will end on 1 March. Airlines that do not comply with the stipulated period could be fined.
The Tourist Card
The payment of the tax, which currently corresponds to USD 10, is a necessary requirement for entry into the territory of the Dominican Republic by foreigners for tourism purposes and is included in all tickets issued outside the country. It has been in force since April 2018.
Since then, airline representatives have argued that global reservation systems cannot differentiate applicable taxes according to nationality. For that reason, they argue that differentiated charging is not straightforward.
Due to these limitations, the Dominican administration instructed that the tax be charged at the time of issuing a new ticket, but that it be refunded later, if applicable, through a portal created for that purpose.
In this context, industry players had already proposed the definitive elimination of the Tourist Card from the airlines tickets and its collection through a differentiated online portal.
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