Speaking to the press, the
Minister announced that number of visits visitor numbers will
increase over 2008, when it recorded a figure of two million 348
thousand people.
According to experts and
international agencies, global financial and economic crisis has
impacted negatively on key tourism markets, and Cuba has not been
exempt from this phenomenon, besides suffering from the impact of
the U.S. blockade.
Marrero Cruz said that the
biggest source market of tourists to the island remains Canada, with
900 thousand vacationers reported so far, followed by the UK and
Spain, which held a significant increase in recent months.
Marrero reported that in the
current year Cuba completed some two thousand new rooms in the major
tourist centers of the country, although the fundamental weight was
concentrated in the capital.
Over 60 percent of products
marketed in the network of hotels and other accommodation, is of
national origin, said the official, who noted that Cuba's tourism
industry employs around 200 000 workers.
Development strategy, which will
begin in 2010 and runs through 2015, provides for new investments in
Guardalavaca, Cayo Coco, Varadero, Trinidad and Havana, which is
characterized by the construction of hotels with their own capital,
he advanced.
For that period, said Marrero,
Cuba will also work towards the creation of golf courses, given the
increasing interest in this type of recreation in a broad segment of
the international tourism market.
Also it will prioritize the
training of new methods, which means turning each hotel, restaurant,
or establishment into a tourism school, and its best managers and
specialists in teachers who are responsible to train the generations
that will continue developing the sector tourism.
Our strong commitment to the
leadership of the Revolution is to intensively develop quality
tourism, highlighting the values of the people, political stability
and public safety and epidemiology, concluded the Minister.
According to AP, Cuba was selected by as one of the top ten
destinations for the end of this year and 2010 by Lonely Planet US’s
staff and by Concierge.com.
