Cuban professor and researcher José Luis Perelló reported today that at the end of the first semester this year, 1.3 million foreign visitors had arrived in the country.
In this regard, the expert and consultant added on his Facebook account that the preliminary figures show an increase of 50.6 percent compared to the same period in 2019. He said it was about the arrival of just over a million 298,000 foreign visitors.
The recovery of Canadian tourism, the island’s main tourism market, reached 80.3 percent compared to 2019, reporting 583,025 tourists.
Three markets account for 70 percent of the cumulative total of international visitor arrivals, followed by Canadians: Cubans living abroad (176,349), the United States (82,280), and Russia (67,615).
This latter market is expected to perform better from July 1 with the resumption of direct flights from Moscow by Nordwind Airlines. The number of arrivals from Europe’s traditional markets remains relatively low in Ukraine due to the lack of recovery in long-distance travel from the so-called old continent and uncertainties arising from European Union (EU) restrictions influenced by the conflict.
In these cases he named Spain (36,712), Germany (37,901), France (31,537) and the United Kingdom (28,345).
Meanwhile, Latin American countries like Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela host 75,146 tourists. The announcement of new flight routes to Cuba starting July 1 will broaden prospects for arrivals.
The number of sea arrivals is not significant (24,022 visitors) due to restrictions imposed by the US, which is the main emitter of cruise ships and yachts throughout the Caribbean.