Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:57pm EST
By Marc Frank
HAVANA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - The Cuban tourism season got off to a rough
start in 2010, with arrivals down 4.9 percent in January from the same
month of last year, according to a government report seen by Reuters on
Wednesday.
The report, due to be released later this week, said arrivals were
254,845 in the first month of this year, compared with 268,115 in
January 2009. It gave no further details.
Tourism and related businesses are an important source of income for the
cash-strapped, communist-run Caribbean island, totaling more than $2
billion last year, or about 20 percent of Cuba's foreign exchange income.
Foreign sources in the tourism industry blamed the January decline on a
pricing spat with a major Canadian tour operator that reduced bookings
from Canada, economic hard times in Europe and competition from
lower-priced packages in the Dominican Republic and the Mexican resort
of Cancun.
Slightly more than 2.4 million tourists visited Cuba last year, an
increase of 3.5 percent over 2008. Of those, the biggest number --
914,884 -- were Canadians.
The foreign manager of a Cuban hotel said tourist arrivals were down
again in February and prospects for March were not encouraging because
the response by tourism officials to January's decline was too slow in
coming.
"They are running around lowering their prices now but it's too late
through March," he said.
Also, other countries expecting fewer arrivals from Europe and the
United States due to the global recession are trying to lure Canadian
tourists.
"They have waged a price war for the Canadian market," the hotel manager
said.
The U.S. market is largely off-limits to Cuba because the 48-year-long
U.S. trade embargo against the island prohibits most Americans from
traveling there. (Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Cuban tourism season off to rough start | Reuters (24 February 2010)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2420927520100225?type=usDollarRpt
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