AREQUIPA, Peru – Cuba hopes to welcome more than 185,000 Russian visitors by the end of the year, although the overall forecast for tourism performance in the country will fall short of official expectations.
According to the details given to the state Latin Press According to Cristina León, a tourism advisor at the Cuban embassy in Moscow, an increase in air connections between Russia and various Cuban destinations is expected, beyond the usual points such as Havana, Varadero and Cayo Coco.
“Russians don’t just come here to sunbathe and swim on the beach, they also want to learn about our culture and history,” he said.
Between the activities Among the most popular Russian tourism activities on the island are nautical excursions and other complementary activities, such as fishing and diving.
Cuba participated in the 30th International Tourism Fair held at the Moscow Expocentre, with the presence of specialists from 25 nations, from September 17 to 19, a space in which representatives of the archipelago presented the available offers.
However, despite the triumphalist discourse in the propaganda of the Castro regime, in 2024 the arrival of tourists to the Island will remain below the plans. In that sense, the sector still has not reached pre-pandemic levels.
This week, the Cuban government revised and lowered by 16% its estimate of tourist arrivals to the Island in 2024, which marks a decrease of half a million (the statistic dropped from 3.2 million tourists to 2.7 million), according to data from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) (state).
Cuba received a total of 1,680,485 visitors during the first half of 2024, according to official figures from ONEI. Although this number represents an increase of 101.1% compared to the previous year, it barely reflects an increase of 0.9% compared to the same period in 2023.
Despite expectations of recovery, the Island is still far from reaching the figures of 2019, when more than 4 million tourists arrived on the Island. In contrast, tourist destinations such as Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) and Cancun (Mexico) have managed to exceed their pre-pandemic levels.
