Cuba Recovering Markets

Cuban tourism authorities are aggressively pursuing plans to recover markets that have gone into decline in recent years, such as France and Mexico even as they look to emerging ones, including Turkey, Japan and China.

The new thrust comes against the background of a boom in the industry, with the officials predicting that 2.3 million holidaymakers will enjoy the Caribbean island´s destinations during 2005, compared to two million in 2004.

Minister of Tourism, Manuel Marrero, stressed the goals for the period is an increase in hotel room capacity and a wider variety of options, going beyond just sun and sand to cover cultural, historical, nature and ecological options, as well as health and marine activities.

The International Tourism Fair in Cuba was dedicated this year to France, whose Tourism Minister Leon Bertrand was at hand during the recently finished event.

Organizers said around 1,000 specialists and businesspersons from 30 countries attended the marketplace. Among special guests was Venezuela´s Tourism Minister, Wilmar Castro.

The number of arrivals between January and April 2005 had risen by eight per cent in comparison to the same period the previous year and the Cuban Tourism Minister forecasts that there would be substantial rises in the number of tourists coming from Canada, Holland and Great Britain.