Although still humble, foreign tourists have reappeared on the streets of Havana this year.
Photo: Jorge Luis Banos/IPS
After two years of agonizing hustle and bustle, tourism in Cuba has awakened in the first half of the year, although the trend and the global scenario still keep it away from the plans the government is defending for the current year. Instead, the recent opening of airlines from several countries, including the United States, is a sign of encouragement.
By the end of June, the largest of the Antilles had taken in almost a million people and was once again dominating its traditional markets. Of the 987,008 travelers who arrived during the semester, 682,411 were classified as international visitors, according to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
Canada again topped the list (214,122 travelers), followed by the Cuban community abroad (151,008) and those from the United States (40,600), in a rebound in pre-pandemic source market structure.
Russia, which led ties when Cuba reopened its borders in 2021, has now slipped to fourth place. The war in Ukraine shrank the flight flow from Moscow. This semester ended with 37,654 Russian visitors, 52 percent of what was achieved in a similar phase of 2021.
During the dark years of the pandemic, the country was forced to close airports and hotels, leading to an almost complete depression in the tourism industry, which has been identified as the main source of foreign exchange for Cuba and a market locomotive for other industries and activities.
In 2021, 356,470 international visitors – out of half a million travelers – came to Cuba, nearly 33 percent of the total recorded a year earlier. The sum of 2020 and 2021 (1,442,390 visitors) accounted for less than 30 percent of 2018’s record arrivals.
Other countries that have started to reactivate departures to Cuba in this first semester are Spain, Germany, England, France and Italy. However, the old continent is not at a good time to foresee a travel revival in the short term.
The recession that threatens the euro zone, partly due to the energy and food self-flagellation of the sanctions that these countries have imposed on Russia, has caused the devaluation of the euro, to the point that this currency has reached parity with the dollar for the first time in two decades. The resignations of the prime ministers in Italy and Great Britain as well as the European Commission’s financial aid for Spain are clouding European tourism plans.
With a recession just around the corner and a weak euro, the scenario in Europe is not conducive to expectations of strong tourist flows
landings in Cuba
With the first semester over, the government’s plan of 2.5 million international visitors this year is really unlikely. If a rate is maintained in the second half of the year in line with the monthly average of the last four months, Cuba could receive two million travelers in 2022.
But even with a very strong reaction in the first months of the high season, November and December, the arrival of two million international visitors seems concretely possible.
Travelers is an indicator that, in addition to international visitors, also includes other people, including nationals, who are not foreign tourists.
However, 2022 can be seen as the start of recovery in a key sector for the country’s overall economic revival. Despite the unfavorable global environment, there are encouraging signs.
The number of airlines resuming travel to tourist destinations in Cuba is steadily increasing. Airlifts from the United States were even opened in July, a small light in the dense fog of economic sanctions from Washington to Cuba.
Canadian airline OWG joined its compatriots Sunwing, Air Canada and Transat. There are 19 weekly flights from Canada, a country that again tops the list of emissions markets to Cuba.
Havanatur Celimar agency opened its first charter flight between Miami and Varadero on July 19, according to Cuban press media. Its director, Silvia Peralta, promised more weekly flights to this destination and trips to four other areas, Villa Clara, Camagüey, Holguín and Santiago de Cuba. Under the motto “Bridging Distances” she builds bridges between Cuban families living in the USA and on the largest of the Antilles.
Days earlier, the US government had authorized American Airlines to restore flights between Miami and five Cuban cities starting in November: Santa Clara, Varadero, Holguín, Camagüey and Santiago de Cuba. These flights are in addition to those with Havana, the only route moderately left open by Donald Trump (US President 2017-2021) as the economic blockade against Cuba tightened during his tenure.
According to experts, the US-approved flights bring very weak relief to the heavy package of 243 anti-Cuban measures Trump passed before leaving the White House.
The director of the Center for International Policy Research (CIPI), José Ramón Cabañas, said President Joe Biden has not been able to structure his own agenda for Cuba or for Latin America in general. “He does nothing but accept the inferior staging of a foreign script,” he said in statements reflected by the Cuban press.
As a sign of encouragement, the reimbursement of flights from the United States is added to the trips started in July by airlines from other countries to tourist destinations in Cuba: Aerolineas Argentinas and the Canadian OWG in collaboration with the agency Hola Sun/Caribe Sol. OWG joins Sunwing, Air Canada and Transat airlines with 19 weekly flights from Canada.
The leading role of the continent’s emissions markets grows in economically turbulent times in Europe. (2022)