The worst omens for the tourism sector are coming true. With the data for November, published This Tuesday by the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei), 1,377,253 international visitors have been received so far this year, which means that it would need to receive 332,747 foreign tourists to meet its forecast for this year.
The number projected for 2022 was initially 2.5 million travelers, but the authorities admitted the huge gap between desire and reality and warned that, finally, would close the year with 1,710,000. The possibility of reaching that number is negligible despite the fact that these last two months are high season on the Island. Despite this, November, which was the best month of 2022, attracted 178,851 foreign tourists and it is unlikely that the number will be double this december.
November, which was the best month of 2022, attracted 178,851 foreign tourists and the number is unlikely to double this December
The figures for this month reveal another almost unprecedented factor, as pointed out by the Cuban economist Pedro Monreal, who periodically analyzes the numbers. “The Cuban community abroad provides one of the most interesting data in tourism statistics in Cuba for the January-November 2022 period, coming to represent just over a fifth of all visitors (21.5%). , exceeding the record of 16% in 2019”.
There were 296,533 Cubans residing abroad who traveled to the Island, an amount that even exceeds the sum of the five main European issuers: Spain (75,116), Germany (52,496), England (42,583), France (39,597). and Italy (36,617). In addition, together with Canada, they account for more than 52% of the tourism that the Island receives, a trend that gives strength to the opinions that the Cuban exile tends to gradually become a more economic than political migrant.
Canadians continue to lead the list of nationalities with the greatest presence in tourism statistics, although the decline continues. If between January and November 2019 1,120,077 travelers from that country arrived in Cuba, the number now stands at only 428,146. The Russians are also still in free fall and, with barely 47,760 visitors this November, they confirm that what was beginning to be a bull market is receding by leaps and bounds. Even in the disastrous 2021, 131,821 Russians arrived on the Island.
The Government highlights in its press release that the amount reached in November represents 539.8% more than that of 2021, the worst year of the pandemic in Cuba. However, at the same height of 2019In the last year without restrictions due to covid-19, Cuba had received almost 4 million tourists, 190% more. The data reveals the island’s inability to recover, an anomaly on the international scene.
At the end of November, the World Tourism Organization was hopeful about the recovery data for the sector at the international level, which is at 63% of the levels of 2019 as a whole, although Europe clearly leads the improvement, with 81% already in September. Cuba, which closed with 4.2 million tourists in the pre-pandemic period, will barely have recovered 42% if it achieved the feat of reaching the goal set by Alejandro Gil, Minister of Economy.
If between January and November 2019 1,120,077 travelers from that country arrived in Cuba, the number now stands at only 428,146
In addition, the constant decline of the sector for the Island is confirmed, which in 2018 registered 4.7 million tourists.
Despite the disastrous data, the Government continues to bet on tourism as a life-saving sector. He invests the largest amounts of money in it, as the 1,500 million dedicated to the construction of hotels since 2020, and for him he looks for the best investments. In the 2023 portfolio of opportunities, there are at least three projects for luxury tourism worth more than 3,000 million dollars.
In addition, the Cuban food sector announces new products for sale in hotels almost daily while the population fights for a bit of pork this Christmas.
Last november, the Cuban Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, projected 3 million visitors by 2023 at a sector event held in London. There he argued that earning foreign currency is essential to improve the lives of Cubans. “Tourism serves to reactivate thermoelectric plants, to buy more food, to provide raw materials to producers, to provide more well-being and quality of life to the people in general,” he said.
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