Published on : Thursday, April 26, 2018
American travel to the Caribbean island is only 56.6 percent of what it was in 2017, said Michel Bernal, the commercial director for the Cuban Tourism Ministry during a news conference on Tuesday.
A number of issues have led to the steep decrease in U.S. tourism. President Donald Trump’s tightening of travel restrictions, mysterious health attacks that prompted the State Department to issue a travel warning and the effects of Hurricane Irma have all contributed.
Bernal said that 2017 was “historically the best year for Cuba.” Tuesday marked the day in which one million tourists visited the island since January. It hit the mark eight days later than in 2017.
During the first trimester of 2018, the top visitors to Cuba were Canadians, followed by Cuban-Americans and other Cubans living abroad. This last group had an increase of 21 percent in comparison to the same period last year. The third largest group of travelers were Americans.
With the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, Americans’ ability to travel to Cuba changed drastically. Before the announcement, in December 2014, most Americans who did not have family ties to Cuba could travel to the island only on guided tours dedicated to “meaningful interaction” with the Cuban people. Activities that could be considered tourism are illegal under U.S. law. In Cuba, U.S. tour companies contracted guides, tour buses and hotel rooms from the Cuban government before the detente.
As a result, U.S. travel to Cuba exploded.Commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba resumed after more than half a century and Airbnb was allowed to operate in Cuba. By the time Obama left office, American travel to Cuba had tripled.
In 2017, Cuba received 1.5 million visitors from the U.S., including Cuban-Americans. In total, they had 4.7 million visitors, which was a 16 percent increase from 2016.
Tags: Cuba, US Tourism