MADRID, Spain, – Tourism in Cuba has not managed to recover quite yet since the reopening of its borders on November 15, a year and a half after they were closed due to COVID-19.
According to a Radio y Televisión Martí report, the residents of Havana themselves attest to that.
Statements made by Naira Montano, a worker at an arts-and-craft store that depends mostly on tourism, indicate that “it’s still not like in previous years.”
“Sales are still not enough to allow us to depend solely on tourism,” stated Montano.
Pablo Pe2rez, another merchant in Havana, stated that many hotels are empty because tourism has decreased due to the news about the precarious situation in Cuba.
Raúl González, a resident of Havana, said: “I have seen a slight increase in tourism, but not what was expected by this time; it should have improved starting in January, and we are approaching late February.”
The Keys, which are one of the principal attractions for foreign visitors, are not seeing too many tourists either.
Statistics provided by the United Nations World Tourism Organization indicate that the Caribbean as a whole showed a rate of growth of 63% in the number of vacationers, while Cuba was trailing behind, according to Radio y Televisión Martí.
In January of this year, the statistics indicate there are 80% less tourists than there were in 2020. At this pace, Cuba will not reach the government’s projected goal of 2.5 million visitors for 2022.
At the end of 2021, Juan Carlos García Granda, Cuba’s minister of Tourism, stated that during the present year, the country expected to welcome no less than 2.5 million tourists, the same number of visitors registered for 2019.
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