TOURISM-CUBA: Record Number of Visitors, Despite the Odds

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Jan 18 2005 (IPS) - Cuba finally managed to break the two-million-visitors mark in 2004, and officials hope to attract even more tourists in 2005, despite the additional restrictions imposed by the U.S. government on travel to the socialist Caribbean island.

The Cuban Ministry of Tourism announced on Monday that Cuba finished the year 2004 with a total of 2,048,572 visitors from abroad, having welcomed its two-millionth tourist in late December.

The island had originally expected to reach the two-million milestone in 2001, but its hopes were dashed by the dramatic decline in international travel that followed the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States that year.

In 2003, the Cuban tourism industry reported a total of roughly 1.9 million visitors and gross revenues of some two billion dollars, reflecting 16 percent growth over the previous year.

Once again, Canadians topped the list of visitors to the island. Between April and June 2004 alone, 143,000 Canadian tourists travelled to Cuba, staying an average of 8.9 days – an increase of 88.4 percent in comparison with the same period in 2003.

Canada was followed by Italy, Britain, Spain, Germany and France, in that order, as the countries that account for the largest numbers of foreign visitors to Cuba. The number of Scandinavian tourists, meanwhile, had increased by 20 percent as of last September.

As for the Latin American region, the number of visitors from Argentina and Chile rose by 90 and 28 percent, respectively, according to statistics released by Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero.

In the case of Argentina, it is hoped that this upward trend will continue as a result of improved political and economic relations with Cuba.

According to international tourism industry sources, since 1996 – when it first reached the one-million-tourists mark – Cuba has consistently figured among the top three Caribbean travel destinations, along with Mexico and Jamaica, and one of the nine most-visited countries in the Americas as a whole.

Moreover, the same sources note, the total number of visitors in 2004 would probably have been even higher if it were not for the new restrictions imposed by the United States on travel to Cuba.

Under the new measures that went into force last July, Cuban-Americans are only allowed to travel to the island once every three years, as opposed to once a year, as was previously the case.

In addition, only those with immediate relatives in Cuba – defined as spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandchildren and grandparents – are authorised to make these "family visits”.

These tightened restrictions followed on the tail of steps taken by the Cuban government of President Fidel Castro to make it easier for Cuban émigrés to visit their homeland.

Since last June, Cubans residing permanently abroad no longer need to apply for a visa to travel to the island, but can instead have their old Cuban passports "reactivated".

The elimination of the visa requirement was expected to bring about a marked increase in the number of visits, particularly from the United States, home to 1.3 million people of Cuban birth and descent.

Instead, however, due to the stricter measures enforced by the George W. Bush administration, the number of Cuban-Americans travelling to the island decreased by 38 percent in 2004, as compared to 2003.

Moreover, additional U.S. government restrictions made it even more difficult for U.S. citizens to obtain Treasury Department licences, without which it is illegal for them to visit the island. The U.S. authorities also began to crack down more harshly on U.S. citizens who travel to Cuba illegally – that is, without a licence – through third countries like Canada or Mexico.

The end result was a 50 percent drop in travel from the United States to Cuba overall between May and October of last year, and the loss of an estimated 100 million dollars in revenue for the Cuban tourism industry.

In response, Cuba has begun to take fuller advantage of the opportunities offered by other markets, such as China, which officially designated the island a tourism destination for its citizens in July of last year.

There are now 41 agencies with 528 offices operating in this enormous potential market, authorised to organise group tours to the island. As of last November, some 5,600 Chinese tourists had visited Cuba in 2004, which was 40 percent more than during all of 2003.

The Cuban government has forecast a 12.2 percent growth in tourism for 2005, with the arrival of an estimated 2.3 million visitors.

In preparation for this expected increase in visitors, 2,200 new hotel rooms in four- and five-star hotels will be opened during the 2004-2005 tourism season, with another 1,100 rooms remodelled.

By the end of 2004, the island had a total of 41,000 hotel rooms devoted to the international tourism trade, roughly 2,000 more than in 2002 and almost double the number available in the first half of the 1990s.

Cuba currently ranks eighth among the 25 leading tourism destinations in the Americas, having made a swift and dramatic rise from 23rd place in 1990.