The commitment of the Cuban authorities to attract tourists of distant allies, especially Russia and China, may not compensate for the decrease of vacationers that come to the Island, said Paolo Spadoni, associate professor at Augusta University and expert in Cuban tourism.
Speaking to Reuters, the researcher recalled that, for example, a trip from Beijing to Cuba with stops can take 24 hours or more, making it a very demanding journey.
“It’s a remote possibility,” said Spadoni regarding Havana’s announcements that it is seeking visitors from those countries. “The Chinese and Russians may provide some relief in the short term, but they are highly unlikely to make up for the lost contingent of European and American visitors.”said Spadoni.
For the expert, The official goal of attracting 3.2 million visitors to Cuba in 2024 will once again fall short. Its estimate is that the Island will receive between 2.6 and 2.7 million tourists this year, although the Government has begun to count in its statistics Cuban emigrants who visit their country of origin, and who often do not stay. in hotels nor do they make expenses in the tourist business network.
According to Reuters, “Signs of an industry in crisis are everywhere. Hotel lobbies and restaurants, once popular with foreigners, are almost empty. White sand beaches receive few international visitors. And at the Havana Airport, taxi drivers complain that they usually wait all day for a single customer.”
The Cuban authorities, who are unable to recover pre-pandemic tourist numbers, are appealing to their political allies to get visitors. For now, The Russian market is the one that is growing the most in general terms, but it is Canada and Cubans residing abroad who provide the bulk of travelers to the island.
The official Cuban press assured that More than 66,000 Russians visited the country between last January and March, which is double that of the same period in 2023. In that same period, according to official figures, the hotel occupancy rate was only 35.5%.
In the initial period of 2024, Russia has maintained the majority of direct flights to Cuba and expanded the use of Mir payment cards, Moscow’s alternative to Visa and Mastercard, vetoed by the West as part of the sanctions against the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine.
In March of this year it was reported that the Cuban authorities intend to seek the launch of direct flights from Saint Petersburg to the island’s resorts.
Likewise, Havana eliminated the visa requirement for Chinese visitors and the Air China airline began flights to Cuba with a stopover in Madrid. The number of Chinese tourists to Cuba had an average annual increase of 23% between 2010 and 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted it.
The official statistics for the end of 2019 showed 45,000 Chinese tourists arriving on the Island. In 2020, 50,000 were expectedbut that number was not reached.
As for Russia, although the tourist figures are more optimistic, the increase in interest among vacationers from that country in booking vacation packages in Cuba during the summer It is fundamentally based on the decrease in prices hoteliers compared to the high season.
The Russian Union of the Travel Industry (RST) indicated that for the hottest months on the Island, when the general influx of tourists decreases, The most popular hotel chains offer discounts of up to 45% compared to winter.
A similar situation was experienced in 2023, when the discounts were of the order of 15-20%, with a value of between 135,000 and 145,000 rubles (between 1,500 and 1,600 US dollars) for two people. Such prices corresponded to 3-star hotels, in the best of cases, with breakfast included.
According to figures provided by the Cuban Embassy in the Russian Federation, 185,000 tourists from that country traveled to the Island in 2023, an amount 3.4 times higher than in 2022. By 2024, Havana expects between 200,000 and 230,000 tourists from Russiaa record number.
