Cuba received more than 1.7 million international travelers between January and October this year, a number that surpassed the downward target for this year, which was originally set at 2.5 million.
As the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI) reported this Friday, the number registered in the first 10 months of 2022 is 540% more than in the same period last year.
According to Onei, the top issuing countries were Canada, Cubans living abroad, the United States, Spain, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Mexico, in that order.
Canada, traditionally the largest emissions market, tops the list of countries with travelers to the island with 359,034 tourists, followed by the Cuban expatriate community, which accumulates 266,264 visitors.
In an earlier cut, 1,396,921 travelers had arrived on the island in the first eight months, more than double the 573,944 officials said were in Cuba for all of last year.
Official estimates put the revenue for the Cuban economy at around $1,159 million if that number of visitors arrives by December.
In 2018 and 2019, Cuba welcomed between 4 and 5 million international travelers annually.
Tourism is Cuba’s second largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) and the second largest source of foreign exchange, behind exports of professional services, mainly in the healthcare sector.
Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García Granda stated that Cuba expects more than 3 million foreign tourists in 2023.
“Tourism serves to reactivate thermoelectric plants, to buy more food, to provide raw materials for producers, to achieve greater well-being and quality of life for people in general,” he explained at the London Tourism Fair last November.
EFE/OnCuba