Above: Cap Cana (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Dominican Republic received around 5.14 million tourists in 2014, according to new data from the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

That number was the largest of any tourism destination in the Caribbean; the next-largest was Cuba, with just over 3 million.

The country’s totals represented a 9.6 percent increase over tourist arrivals in 2013, according to the CTO data.

The country’s strong numbers were buoyed by a very solid summer season, during which the Dominican Republic saw an 11.7 percent jump.

The United States remained the country’s single-largest source market, with 1.78 million US arrivals and a 12.4 percent growth rate, although the country saw the strongest improvement in areas outside of the US, Canada and Europe.

The Dominican Republic’s administration has announced a stated goal of reaching 10 million annual visitors by 2023.