The number of foreign tourists who visited Cuba last January was almost four times higher than the same month of the previous year, when the figures sank due to covid-19.
As published this Saturday by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the number of international visitors rose to 134,661 last January, compared to 35,842 in the first month of 2021.
The strong increase is linked to the global recovery from the pandemic, both in Cuba and in its main tourist source markets, and contrasts with the evolution in 2021 as a whole.
The ONEI estimated at 573,944 international travelers who visited Cuba throughout last year, which represented a decrease of 60% compared to 2020.
The figure for the whole of 2021 represents a quarter of the official projection at the beginning of the year, which was around 2.2 million visitors, and very far from the between 4 and 5 million annual tourists of the exercises prior to the pandemic.
Despite the pandemic and a shortage of construction supplies across the country, Gaesa, the military conglomerate, has not stopped its massive projects
The Ministry of Economy and Planning estimates that this year some 2.5 million international visitors will travel to the island, who should contribute some 1,159 million dollars to the Cuban economy.
Cuba, which reopened its borders in the middle of last November after the closure forced by the pandemic, has a priority sector in tourism. This is its second largest item of gross domestic product (GDP) and its third largest source of foreign currency, behind the sale of medical services and remittances.
The state tourism sector expects to end this year with 84,906 rooms, 5.7% more than the previous year, despite the pandemic. As this newspaper has confirmed, the construction of new hotels is going at full speed.
In Havana’s Vedado, for example, the deteriorated structure of the Moscow restaurant is being rapidly demolished to make way for accommodation to be managed by the Cuban company Gran Caribe and the Spanish company Be Live, and ten days ago the Telegraph Axel Hotel as the first LGBTI establishment friendly From the capital.
Despite coronavirus restrictions, a lack of tourists, and a shortage of construction supplies across the country, Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA (Gaesa), the military conglomerate, has not stopped its huge projects. One of them is the one that is being built at 25 and K, in El Vedado, a luxury hotel that is projected as “the tallest of its kind in Havana” and that aims to reach 42 floors and 154 meters in height. .
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