Friday, December 21, 2018
A senior official from Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) mentioned that Cuba made a new record in international tourists’ arrival. The Caribbean island received 4.45 million visitors reflecting an increase of 1.3 percent from last year.
Michel Bernal, MINTUR’s development director stated that despite U.S. sanctions limiting its citizens to travel to Cuba and the island saw a sharp drop in the first half of the year, the island will finish this year with a new record-high figure of international visitors.
He went on saying that Canada continues to be the country’s first market despite a 2-percent drop in arrivals of tourists, while the U.S. stood second due to the increase of cruise ships from that nation.
The new cruise companies and routes from the U.S. led to an increase in arrival by sea however the arrivals by air went down to about 6 percent in Cuba. More than 600,000 U.S. visitors travelled to Cuba until December 13 and this was majorly on cruise ships.
Barnel said that they project to close out the year with 850,000 tourists coming in on cruises , the majority from the U.S.Due to hurricane Irma there were economic losses of 13 billion dollars.
Russia was the most dynamic source country showing 30-percent rise in comparison to 2017 while the traditional markets like like France, Germany, Spain, the U.K. and Italy declined in arrivals.
There was a 23 and 16 percent rise respectively in tourists from Mexico and Brazil and the Chinese visitors increase by 10 percent from last year.
Jose Daniel Alonso, MINTUR’s commercial director said that Cuba is expected to receive 5.1 million visitors in 2019 which will see a 7-percent increase from this year.
There will be measures taken to attract tourists to Cuba from emerging markets like China, Turkey, Eastern Europe and other Asian nations.
Tags: Cuba, Jose Daniel Alonso, Michel Bernal, MINTUR
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