Cuba has received more than 1.7 million international travelers between January and October of this year, a figure that exceeds the goal that he set downward for this year, which originally stood at 2.5 million.
As reported this Friday by the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei), the figure registered in the first 10 months of 2022 represents 540% more than in the same period last year.
The main issuing countries have been Canada, Cubans residing abroad, the United States, Spain, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Mexico, in that order, according to Onei.
Canada, traditionally the largest issuing market, leads the list of countries with travelers to the island, with 359,034 tourists, followed by the Cuban emigrant community, which accumulates 266,264 visitors.
In a previous cut, in the first eight months 1,396,921 travelers had arrived on the island, more than double the 573,944 who were in Cuba in all of last year, according to official data.
Official estimates foresee income for the Cuban economy of some 1,159 million dollars if that number of visitors arrives until December.
In 2018 and 2019, Cuba welcomed between 4 and 5 million international travelers a year.
Tourism represents the second largest item of gross domestic product (GDP) and the second largest source of foreign currency in Cuba, behind the export of professional services, mainly from the health sector.
The Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, declared that in 2023 Cuba expects to receive more than 3 million foreign tourists.
“Tourism serves to reactivate thermoelectric plants, to buy more food, to provide raw materials to producers, to achieve more well-being and quality of life for the people in general,” he explained during the London Tourism Fair last November.
EFE/OnCuba
