UNWTO’s Executive Visits Cuba to Further Cooperation

The United Nations World Tourism Organization’s Secretary General, Jordanian Taleb Rifai, arrived in Cuba on Tuesday with a mission to strengthen bilateral relations of cooperation, according to local media.

“This country is going to have a very important role and position within the World Tourism Organization (...) Bilateral exchange will promote cooperation”, Rifai said upon arriving in Havana’s internacional airport, where he was welcomed by Cuba’s Tourism minister Manuel Marrero.

Cuba “has quite a special place in my heart (...) Both of us want to be sure that Cuba becomes the final destination in this world of tourism,” Mr. Rifai added, who traveled to the island along with the Organization’s regional representative, Spain’s Carlos Vogeler.

The local TV report highlighted that during his stay on the island, Mr. Rifai and Mr. Vogeler will talk to “authorities from the Tourism Ministry (Mintur) about plans for bilateral cooperation.”

According to official information, Cuban tourism had a 1.9 percent increase in the first four-month period of the year, with 1.046.559 visitors who made that period the one with more arrivals ever since 1993, when the island began to promote that activity in a bid to face the economic crisis caused by the fall of the socialist bloc.

Tourism is Cuba’s second hard currency income source and generated $2.4 million worth of revenue in 2008, with 2.3 million visitors.