The Cuban regime’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) reported that a month before the end of 2022, just 1.3 million tourists had arrived on the island, a figure still below its “annual plan,” which at 1.7 lies million.
Back in late October, the government lowered Cuba’s “tourism plan” for this year, after accepting that January’s figure of 2.5 million visitors would be impossible to reach as tourism plummeted. All this despite increasing investments in this sector.
According to the newspaper, a spokesman for the Communist Party, the regime’s Deputy Prime Minister Alejandro Gil Fernández has updated the number. “A lower figure than the 2.5 million we forecast in the economic plan,” the regime official confirmed.
According to the latest data from Onei, Canadian tourists, Cubans living abroad, the United States, Spain, Germany and Russia top the list of travelers to the island.
In fact, this week Canadian company Air Transat resumed its flights between Montreal and Havana on Monday amid the deep crisis the island is going through. The airline now offers two weekly direct flights to the Cuban capital.
In this regard, the airline reported on its official Twitter: “Air Transat is pleased to be back in Havana” after three years of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The airline had previously resumed its connections with Varadero, Cayo Coco and with the cities of Camagüey, Santa Clara and Holguín. The North American company American Airlines, with eight daily connections to Havana, and the Angolan TAAG, with two weekly connections, also increased their flights to Cuba.
The Cuban regime is desperately trying to increase tourist flow to the island, but so far, behavior has fallen short of expectations. A few days before the end of the year, not even the “reduced tourist plan” should be fulfilled.
Some specialists, such as the Cuban economist Elías Amor, had already warned the independent media outlet CiberCuba that this number would not come true for the regime either, because the global economy is entering a recession and most people are not traveling.