BOSTON.- The arrival of foreign tourists to Dominican Republic fell 3.1% in the third quarter, compared with the same year ago period, the lowest rate in the last 10 years, that averaged 5.5%, said the non-government organization Quisqueya Foundation.

The economists Frank Valenzuela and Héctor Frias, the organization’s president and executive director, said Dominican tourism already shows the first signs of deceleration, since the 24,835 fewer tourists visited the country during the third quarter than the same period last year.

They affirmed that 796,102 foreign tourists came to the country during the third quarter last year, althpugh the figure fell to 771,267 in the same period this year, figures they said were obtained from the Central Bank’s Web site, which keeps track of the tourist visits monthly.

They said the global and U.S. economic crises are to blame for the slide in tourist visits, which has caused a 3.3% decrease in tourists visits from that country during that period.

Valenzuela and Frias said 9,285 fewer U.S. tourists visited the country, going from 279,328 during the third quarter in 2007 to 270,043 in 2008.

They stress that U.S. tourists were 35% of the foreign visitors to the country in the third quarter this year, in additin to being 33.7% during the periods including the third quarter from 2000 to 2007.