Economy & Business - May 2023

CUBA | Cuba claims tourism recovery. On 3 May Cuba’s tourism minister, Juan Carlos García Granda, said that a million tourists had visited Cuba so far this year, exceeding the number registered in the same period last year. Speaking at the 41st Cuban International Tourism Fair (FITCuba 2023) in the capital, Havana, he said that the government had the target of 3.5m foreign tourists visiting in 2023. He also said that Canada was the top source of tourists, accounting for over 50% of arrivals, and tourism from this country had recovered to 80% of levels seen in 2019 prior to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic which struck in 2020 and proved hugely damaging for Cuba’s crucial tourism sector. According to the Cuban government, representatives from over 573 international tour operators, more than 51 hotel chains, and over 50 air lines planned to attend the fair which took place from 1-5 May and was the first in Havana since the pandemic hit in March 2020. A total of 1.614m tourists visited Cuba in 2022, less than the target of 1.7m, which had itself been revised down from 2.5m at the start of the year. Before the pandemic struck, Cuba was receiving between 4m and 5m tourists per year, making tourism one of the mainstays of the economy.

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