HAVANA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th May, 2023) Russia intends to pump up its tourist traffic to Cuba to 500,000 people a year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said on Friday.
Cuban Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Garcia Granda said during the Russian-Cuban conference on tourism in Havana that Russia has historically been one of the top four countries by the number of visitors to Cuba. At the height of the pandemic, Russia was the first in terms of total tourist traffic, with the maximum number reaching 187,000 people a year, he said. Cuba would like to surpass this figure and in the future, reach 500,000 tourists a year, Garcia Granda added.
"I support the minister in his ambition to increase the annual tourist traffic from Russia to 500,000 people. This way, Russia could top the list, leaving (Cuba's) currently leading tourist traffic provider, Canada, behind. I'm sure we will be able to do that by joined efforts," Chernyshenko said.
He pointed out that Russia will resume regular flights to Cuba, which will be served by Rossiya Airlines. �
"Considering the expected growth of tourist traffic to Cuba, Russia is interested in our tourists being accepted and served here at an adequate level. That is why we want to ask the prime minister to help us by looking into the possibility of constructing a special (airport) terminal for Russian tourists or by allocating an existing terminal for that purpose," Chernyshenko said.�
The deputy prime minister also urged his counterpart to consider taking preferential measures to boost joint projects in tourism and facilitating the establishment of direct connections between interested investors on both sides.
Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz, who was also present at the conference, said Cuba could open a tourism ministry's office in Russia to get more people interested in going to the country.
"It was pointed out at the conference that we need to more actively promote Cuba as a tourist destination. The Cuban ministry of tourism conducts a promotional campaign every year, including in Russia. If we have to change or adapt it to attract more Russian tourists, we are prepared to do that. When we have resumed direct flights and the tourist traffic from Russia, we will have no problem opening a tourism ministry's office in Russia as well," he said.
The prime minister added that the Cuban ministry of tourism has offices in various countries, inducing in Canada's Toronto and Montreal. Canada tops the list of Cuban tourism partners with its tourist traffic of up to 700,000 people yearly.��
