With the reopening to tourism after the pandemic, Cuba has seen an increase in visitors of more than 500% in the first seven months of this year compared to the same period in 2021, says Onei, the body dedicated to statistics and information on the archipelago. Even so, the numbers do not compare to those before Covid.
According to official data, from January to July 2022, 834,891 tourists arrived on the island, or about 590% more than the 141,293 visitors in the same seven months of the previous year.
International tourism is Cuba’s second main economic activity, after the sale of medical services. But the field has plummeted in the last two years because of Covid and the restrictive measures, still in effect, imposed by the United States.
The total number of travelers that reached 4.2 million in 2019 dropped to about one million a year after the pandemic began. Now that it is under control, national authorities are aiming to attract 2.5 million tourists this year.
One of the hopes lies in the return of Russian tourists to the archipelago. In 2020 and 2021, the country was the one that most sent tourists to Cuba, a position historically occupied by Canada.
Last week, the Cuban ambassador to Moscow, Julio Garmendía, told the Russian vehicle Izvestia that he is working to restore flights from there to Cuba in the winter, suspended by the pandemic and the War in Ukraine.
Even so, Onei’s data points to a reactivation of tourists coming from Canada, which has again assumed its leadership position this year, having been the country of origin of 258,896 tourists who went to Cuba. Second are Cubans residing abroad.
In July, Cuba ceded the management of Cayo Largo del Sul, a paradise island to the south of the archipelago, to the Canadian hotel group Blue Diamond. He, who now manages 10,900 accommodation units in Cuba, has gained ground in the country’s tourism by taking over the luxury hotel Paseo del Prado, which will be renamed Royalton Havana.
