14ymedio, Moscow, 14 March 2024–The Russian MIR payment card, accepted in Cuba since November 2023, is here to stay and will boost Russian tourism to the Caribbean nation to an expected half-million visitors, Cuban minister of tourism Juan Carlos García Granda declared today.
“The Russian MIR card arrived in Cuba to stay,” García Granda stated during a press conference called by the Russian news agency TASS. He explained that the Cuban tourism sector assigned itself the task of “creating many more benefits for the Russian customer.”
“One of the challenges we have overcome, because we can now announce the results, is that Russians can use rubles to pay in Cuba, which is already the case today,” he pointed out.
García Granda recalled that since 20 November 2023, “we were able to complete the first transactions with MIR cards, and we officially announced the use of MIR cards on terminals at points of sale since 5 December 2023.”
The minister reiterated the interest in promoting Cuba as an attractive tourist dest