Cuba reports more tourists, less revenue in 2009

Cuba says more than 2.4 million tourists will come to the sun-kissed island by the end of the year, up 3.3 per cent from 2008’s record, though deep discounts and shorter stays mean vacation industry revenues are down overall.

The country will break the previous year’s mark of 2.34 million visitors by nearly 80,000, fuelled by 2,000 new hotel rooms in top tourist areas, including Havana and Varadero, a white-sand beach north of the capital, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said in Thursday’s edition of the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

He did not say how much Cuban tourism took in and, unlike in previous years, no information on vacation industry revenue was made public during the year-end meeting of Cuba’s parliament Sunday.

Marrero said in November that his ministry’s revenues would fall about 11.7 per cent, as Cuba has been forced to slash prices because of the global recession.

Foreign visitors generated over $2.7 billion last year, a 13.5 per cent increase from 2007.