MADRID, Spain. – The Cuban government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese tourism group Caissa Tourism Group, with the goal of promoting cooperation between both countries in the area of tourism development.
The agreement was signed last Tuesday in Beijing by Havana’s ambassador to China, Carlos Miguel Pereira, and Chen Xiaobing, cofounder and executive director of Caissa Tourism Group.
Representatives of the tourism sector stated that both parties will work to “promote, organize and manage travelers’ trips to Cuba and to China in various forms.”
According to the official agency Prensa Latina’s coverage, “the initiatives generated will also be in agreement with interests that have been identified in the areas of cultural tourism, health tourism, historical-patrimonial tourism and multi-destinations in the Caribbean region.”
The note also states that Cuban authorities intend to duplicate, in the short term, the number of Chinese travelers to the island, the reason why Cuba is promoted as a tourist destination by highlighting “its attractions and strengths, like nature, culture, health and nautical tourism.”
In 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic, China occupied 13th place among countries that emitted tourists to the island.
In an effort to revive the tourism sector and reach the projected 2.5 million visitors to the island in 2022, the regime has been promoting Cuba as a tourist destination in Cambodia, Canada, Uruguay, Italy and Turkey.
According to statistics published recently by Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI, by its Spanish acronym), in the first half of 2022, 987,008 tourists have arrived in the country, which represents an increase of 557.3% with regard to the same period last year. However, this number is quite far from the 2.5 million foreign visitors that the Cuban government predicts will arrive in 2022.
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