HAVANA – Cuba welcomed 1.28 million tourists in the first four months of this year, a figure that exceeded by 60,804 the number of visitors during the same period in 2013, the National Statistics and Information Office (ONEI) said on Monday.
Canada continues to be the main source of foreign visitors to Cuba, followed by Germany, Britain, France and Italy.
So far in 2014, a rise in tourism of about 5 percent has been noted compared to the same period last year, according to figures compiled by the Tourism Ministry.
Last year, 2.85 million travelers came to the communist island, including more than a million Canadians, and – although it did not achieve its forecast of about three million visitors, the Cuban government registered a modest growth of 0.5 percent compared with 2012.
France, Argentina, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Russia and Venezuela, in that order, were among the countries sending the most tourists to the island in 2013.
International tourism provided Cuba with income of some $1.8 billion in 2013, most of it for lodging and food, according to official figures.
