MIAMI, United States. – Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI, by its Spanish acronym) informed Friday that, between January and August of 2022, the island welcomed 1’396,921 travelers, which represents an annual growth rate of 556.1%, according to official news sources .
According to ONEI, the island welcomed 1’145,743 more travelers than for the same period in 2021.
To ONEI, a traveler constitutes “any person that moves between two or more different countries,” which does not necessarily mean foreign tourists.
Of the total number of travelers, 971,456 were international visitors, which represents 807,732 more visitors -593.3%- than between January and August of the previous year.
Another 212,485 travelers were Cuban immigrants who reside abroad.
The Cuban regime considers that international visitors “are all those individuals who visit a country (Cuba) that is different from the country where they reside for a period not to exceed one year.”
“The main travel motive would be leisure, recreation, business or other personal motive, not one where remunerated activity takes place in the country being visited,” state ONEI’s methodological notes.
In mid-year, Cuba’s Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, referred to the sustained increase of tourism facilities on the island and stated that the growth rate of tourists that arrive on the island is higher than the rate of guest-room construction since the nineties.
During a recent session of the National Assembly of the People’s Power (ANPP, by its Spanish acronym) that was reported by the official medium Cubadebatethe minister insisted on the regime’s plans to reach 2.5 million visitors in 2022.
In spite of the serious crisis the country is facing, the regime continues to opt for raising the level of the tourism industry. It was recently learned that Cubasol Group, which belongs to the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR), is projecting new investments toward strengthening the non-hotel infrastructure on the island by 2030, including building golf courses.
Alex Mulet, vice president of Cubasol, stated to Prensa Latina that the Group has some 150 projects in progress to complete by 2030, including recreation and adventure parks and expanding nautical activities.
He added, also, that approximately 40 of those projects will be completed before 2026 as part of comprehensive development endeavors with diverse non-hotel service providers.
Also, the Cuban regime has not stopped construction of new hotels or the expansion of existing ones. During the months of world economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and of domestic shortages caused by the Communist Party’s mismanagement of the economy, construction of new hotels has not stopped, as told in a special CubaNet report in early June of this year.
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