Punta Cana is a resort town in the easternmost region of the Dominican Republic. It was politically incorporated as the "Verón–Punta Cana Touristic Municipal District" in 2006, and it is subject to the municipality of Higüey (La Altagracia Province). According to the 2022 census, this township or district had a population of 138,919 inhabitants. Punta Cana is the second-most popular tourist destination in Latin America, with more visitors than any other city in the Caribbean region. The Punta Cana International Airport is located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) inland, on the highway that leads from Higüey to La Romana. This airport receives 64% of all flights that arrive in the Dominican Republic, receiving more passengers than the Las Américas International Airport, located in Santo Domingo, the country's capital. The area is known for its white sand beaches, blue turquoise waters, and balnearios which face both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The weather is hot for most of the year, especially in late summer and autumn when the Northern Tropics receive their most direct sunlight.
Geography and climate
The Punta Cana PMO area has an estimated population of 100,000, with an annual growth rate of 11% as of 2011. To the north, it borders the village and beach of Cabeza de Toro, and the Bávaro and El Cortecito beaches. The nearest city, the 500-year-old Higüey, is 45 kilometres (28 mi) away, which takes about an hour to reach by car. European entrepreneurs, particularly Spanish hotel chains, own all but two of the over 50 megaresorts at the Punta Cana tourism destination. The province's 100-kilometre (62 mi) coastline tends to be mildly windy. The ocean waters are mainly shallows, with several natural marine pools in which visitors can bathe without danger. From north to south, the main beaches are Uvero Alto, Macao, Arena Gorda, Bávaro, El Cortecito, Las Corales, and Cabeza de Toro, all north of the cape; and Cabo Engaño, Punta Cana, and Juanillo south of the cape.
Bávaro is the area starting from Cabeza de Toro until Macao Beach. As the hotels started to rise along the east coast, Bavaro itself became a center of services with shopping malls, fast-food stores, drug stores, fine restaurants, banks, clinics, workshops, supermarkets, and schools. The major town in the district is Veron, now bigger than Higüey in territory, a spontaneous—and poor—urban development running along the original road from the west. Verón, last name of the French proprietor of a timberline business in the early 1930s, is now the base-city for hotel workers and related. It has, besides Bávaro, one of only four gas stations in Punta Cana: the next one is located 48 kilometres (30 mi) west in Higüey, at the Fruisa crossroads; a new Texaco gas station opened in April 2010, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south of Macao beach; and the new Shell gas station close to the airport (on the highway Coral) opened at the end of 2010. Punta Cana Village, with a population of about 3,000, is being developed by a master plan of the Punta Cana Group. In 1969 the area was purchased by this organization and development began in the following decades. The main avenue, Boulevard Primero de Noviembre, is lined with low office buildings. Branching off are streets with gated communities on both sides. To the east are single family residences. Small apartment buildings are to the west. A shopping area is near the airport and beyond the apartment houses is a mall and several stores. East of the village is the Westin Resort and golf course by the ocean. There is a public beach, Playa Blanca, with a shuttle bus from the Village's sole hotel. An upscale planned community, Cap Cana, is south of Punta Cana Village.
Climate Punta Cana features a tropical wet and dry climate under the Köppen climate classification. The weather is fairly consistent all year, with an average temperature of 26 °C (79 °F). The hot and humid season lasts from May to October, and during the day temperatures might reach 35 °C (95 °F). From November to March, temperatures during the evening are around 20 °C (68 °F).
History and development In the late 1960s, Frank Rainieri, a Dominican entrepreneur in his 20s and Theodore Kheel, a high-powered New York attorney and labor mediator, teamed up with other investors, to acquire a 58-million square meter lot on the eastern end of the Dominican Republic. The area that is known today as Punta Cana was mostly an undeveloped coastal area of La Altagracia province. At the time the closest major city, Higüey, was a 5-hour drive. Their first project was a 40 guest hotel called the Punta Cana Club. In 1970, Rainieri changed the original name of the place, Yauya or Punta Borrachos, to Punta Cana. In 1978, the Paris Mediterranean Club joined the Grupo Punta Cana SA project, building a 350-room hotel within the project. Later, the Barceló and Newco Group settled in the Bavaro area.
In 1979, the Hotel Puntacana was built and then in 1984, the Punta Cana International Airport was inaugurated, while more infrastructures such as highways were developed. In 1993, construction began on the Marina de Punta Cana Resort & Club marina. In 1996, the Dominican designer Óscar de la Renta and the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias joined the project. In 2000, the first of the residential community developments began and six years later Tortuga Bay opened. Corporate environmental and social responsibilities and policies have been pursued since the resort was built. The Puntacana Foundation—made of the Ecological Foundation and Community Services—has a 1,500-acre reserve that now serves as a research base for universities and a sanctuary for endangered species and has opened two schools—the Ann & Ted Kheel Polytechnic and the Puntacana International School—and a free health clinic in the local community of Véron. Punta Cana will host the 146th IOC Session in 2027.
Bavaro area Bávaro was conceived as a town for the workers of the Punta Cana tourist complex, but it has been transformed into an important center for tourist services after the hotel expansion to the north of Punta Cana around Bávaro beach.
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