A total of 4,834 Cuban tourists visited the Venezuelan island of Margarita, in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, in the last 11 months, the Vice Minister of International Tourism, Leticia Gómez, reported this Friday.
“Today, February 3, 48 new Cuban visitors arrived at the Santiago Mariño International Airport in Nueva Esparta, for a total of 4,834 tourists to date,” the official reported through her Instagram account, where she shared a video with images of visitors in the facilities of a public hotel.
The group that is part of the Cuba-Venezuela “charter operation”, which began in March last year and connects Havana with the Venezuelan city of Porlamar, in the island region of Nueva Esparta, to which Margarita, popularly known as the Pearl of the Caribbean.
Alí Padrón, the Venezuelan Minister of Tourism, explained last January that “small Cuban businessmen” come to the island mainly spend an average of $5,000 per person, only in purchases of products that cannot be obtained in Cuba. The issue even came up in the press of the South American country.
The Cubans found on the island of Margarita a potential market to buy food, basic necessities and other objects free of customs duties in the midst of a deep crisis of shortages.
The group that is part of the Cuba-Venezuela “charter operation”, which began in March of last year and connects Havana with the Venezuelan city of Porlamar
The president of the Neo-Spartan Chamber of Tourism, Viviana de Vethencourt, recently told EFE that it is “extremely positive” that international tourists arrive because it “reactivates and energizes the region’s economy” and, furthermore, makes “other countries turn their heads looks towards Venezuela”.
Margarita received last January the first cruise from Europe in 15 years, the German ship Amadea, which arrived with almost 500 tourists from this continent, including Spain, Germany and France, according to the Executive.
From Cuba, the Cubatur agency offers a seven-night tourist package at the Venetur hotel for a value of up to $970 per traveler, while at the luxurious Tibisay hotel a week in a single room costs $1,523. The additional cost per child is $650.
The commercial director of the Venezuelan tourist agency GTN, Yunier Ávila, predicted that 500 Cubans between the ages of 25 and 40 would arrive in January alone. “Mostly, people who have traveled come to do shopping tourism,” he said in an interview with the news outlet NTA. They look for “tax-free foods,” although they also buy small appliances, depending on the hold luggage capacity of the plane.
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