Caribbean360: Big hopes for Cuba's tourism industry

Big hopes for Cuba's tourism industry
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Chris Hoyos on 25/03/2009 10:38:18
 
HAVANA, Cuba, March 25, 2009 - The growth of tourism in Cuba in the first two
months of this year has led to renewed hopes for the industry, once regarded as
the engine of development on the island because of its rapid rise in the 1990s
and its impact on the rest of the economy.
The tourism industry expanded by 5.2 per cent in January and February compared
with the same period last year, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero announced. This
is good news for Cuba, which is recovering from the devastation caused by three
major hurricanes in 2008, at a time of global economic crisis with - so far -
undetermined consequences.
"Tourism could take on its role as an economic engine again, if restrictions on
travel by US citizens to Cuba are lifted," said economist Pavel Vidal in an
article for the Economics Press Service, a publication of the IPS Havana bureau.
The US Congress recently passed a law permitting Cubans living in the United
States to visit their family members in Cuba once a year. The number of flights
to this Caribbean island nation is thus expected to rise, after falling by about
75 per cent since 2004 in the wake of travel restrictions imposed by former US
President George W Bush.
At least one million tourists from the United States are predicted to arrive on
the island in the first year alone, if the ban on travel to Cuba by US citizens,
enforced since the 1960s as part of the economic embargo, is eliminated.
In 2008, over 2.3 million tourists came to Cuba, an increase of 9.3 per cent
over the previous year, while gross income rose by 13.5 percent. This growth,
after two years of decline, was an exceptional result in the Caribbean region.
According to a report by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) comparing the
industry's performance in 2007 and 2008, 11 out of its 26 member countries
experienced a decline or stagnation in the number of foreign visitors to their
shores.
In December 2008, the statistics confirmed a fall in the number of countries
receiving over one million tourists a year, like the Bahamas and Puerto Rico,
which both reported declines of more than two per cent, while the Dominican
Republic received an identical number of visitors as in 2007. However, Jamaica
experienced growth of 3.9 per cent.
The CTO says that in the short term, several factors could influence the
development of the vitally important tourism sector, including the global
financial crisis and its effects in the United States, which is the main source
of tourists, as well as unstable oil prices and the weakness of the dollar
relative to other currencies.  (Adapted from IPS)