MADRID, Spain. – Tourist sector workers in Varadero told Reuters reporters their worry about the recent departure of Russian vacationers this week due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and to the closing of airspace by many Western nations to Russian aircraft.
As Yanet Costafreda, an arts and craft vendor in Varadero. said to the United Kingdom-based news agency, Cuban beaches “generally are crowded with tourists this time of year.”
“It is suddenly quiet… I am worried because the future seems uncertain,” stated Costafreda.
She also indicated that “Russians were her principal market in recent years.”
According to Reuters, Varadero “has been for a long time a magnet for Russians escaping winter in the northern regions” and this situation “is a visible sign that the conflict will affect the fragile economy of the island.”
Paolo Spadoni, an expert of the Cuban economy on the faculty of Augusta University, in Georgia (U.S.), feels that taking into consideration this perspective, “Cuba will face difficulties in meeting its goal of welcoming 1.5 million tourists in 2022.”
“The loss of the Russian market in 2022 will have a very significant effect on the Cuban economy, for the tourism industry in particular,” Spadoni added.
In his statement, he indicated that the projection was that Russians would make up 20% of all tourists arriving in the island in 2022.
In 2021, with a good part of the world isolating itself amidst the coronavirus pandemic, the number of Russian visitors to Cuba skyrocketed to 40% of all arrivals, according to reports.
“The shaky tourism industry, a vital source of hard-currency income for the country, has left Cuba with a shortage of everything, from food products to medicine, and even supplies for agriculture and industry,” stated Reuters.
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