Cuban professor and researcher Jose Luis Perello said that 1.3 million foreign tourists had visited Cuba at the end of the first semester of 2023.

Havana, Cuba.- He added on Facebook that preliminary figures indicated an increase of 50.6 percent compared to the same period in 2019, accounting for a little more than 1.298 million foreign holidaymakers.

The recovery of Canadian tourism, Cuba’s major tourist-sending market, reached 80.3 percent compared to 2019, with 583,025 travelers.

Three markets accounted for 70 percent of the accumulated total of international tourist arrivals, following the Canadians: Cuban residents abroad (176,349), the United States (82,280), and Russia (67,615).

The latter market should show a better performance as of July 1, after the resumption of direct flights from Moscow by Nordwind Airlines. (PL)