This content was published on August 20, 2022 – 2:20 p.m. August 20, 2022 – 2:20 p.m
Havana, August 20 (EFE).- According to official data published this Saturday, Cuba has received 834,891 international visitors in the first seven months of the year, five times more than in the same period of 2021.
The National Bureau of Statistics and Information (ONEI) reported that 693,592 foreign tourists traveled to Cuba, more than from January to July last year, when they barely reached 141,299.
Most came from Canada, the United States, Spain, Russia, Germany, England, France, Italy and Mexico, the source said.
“In the first seven months of the year, 1,200,580 travelers visited the largest of the Antilles, an increase of 552.3% compared to the same phase in 2021,” specified Onei.
The numbers are still a long way from the more than 2 million who arrived in the first six months of 2019 before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Cuban authorities expect the arrival of 2.5 million tourists by 2022, a number that experts interviewed questioned whether it could be achieved with the current trend.
According to official calculations, the Cuban economy would receive $1,159 million (€1,012 million) if it managed to reach that number of visitors.
Before the pandemic, in 2018 and 2019, Cuba attracted between 4 and 5 million international travelers annually.
Tourism is the second largest contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) and the second largest source of foreign exchange. EFE
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