© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People enjoy the beach in Havana, Cuba, August 9, 2023. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini/File Photo
HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba is counting on winter-weary Russians to help boost the Caribbean island nation’s ailing tourism sector in 2024, according to the Cuban ambassador in Moscow, after a disappointing 2023 saw visitors numbers fall short of the government’s goals.
Some 185,000 tourists from Russia traveled to Havana and Cuba’s dazzling white-sand beaches in 2023 and “we hope that the number will rise to 250,000 people this year,” Cuban ambassador Julio Antonio Garmendía said in a report by Russia’s Interfax news agency.
That would represent a 35% jump in tourists from Russia in 2024, a desperately needed shot in the arm for a key Cuban industry that has struggled to revive following the COVID-19 pandemic. Stiffened U.S. sanctions under former U.S. President Donald Trump also complicate travel by U.S. citizens to the island.
The Cuban diplomat in Moscow said…
