According to the administration, the number of foreign tourists to Cuba this year has been six times that of the same period in 2021, yet it remains below than levels recorded before to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials predict an influx of Russian visitors once flight numbers return to normal, i.e. before the disruptions caused by Covid-19 and the Ukraine conflict.
According to the National Statistics Office, 834,891 tourists visited the island between January and July, compared to 141,293 visitors in the first seven months of 2021.
International tourism is Cuba’s second most important economic sector, however due to the epidemic and the ongoing US embargo, numbers are predicted to decline in 2020 and 2021.
The number of foreign visitors dropped from 4. 2 million in 2019 to over one million in 2020.
However, with the COVID-19 epidemic under control, Cuban officials anticipate 2.5 million tourists this year.
Cuba is especially reliant on the return of tourism thanks to Russian visitors, who will overtake Canadian tourists in 2020 and 2021, after Canada was formerly the largest source of tourists to Cuba.
In an interview with the daily Izvestia last week, Cuban Ambassador to Moscow Julio Garmendia claimed that efforts are being made to restore regular aircraft traffic levels by winter.
We know that the Russians long for another vacation in Cuba, and the Cuban people await them with remarkable hospitality, he added, according to the official blog of Cubadebate.
According to ONS data, Canada is the country with the most tourists to Cuba, with 258,896 Canadians visiting the island by the end of July.
Because of Russian support, Cuba is seeing an increase in tourist numbers.
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