Cuba tourist boom
There’s a tourist boom in Cuba. Reuters says it was fueled by the Arab Spring, changes in US policy and economic reforms.
The result is one of Cuba’s best tourism seasons ever.
"Hotels are full to the brim and Old Havana, the capital’s historic center, is teeming with tourists from around the world," Reuters says.
"We are at capacity. The beach resorts, Havana city are totally full. In the interior of the country, there is nowhere to find a room, nowhere," said the manager of a foreign hotel company.
Cuba last year had 2.7 million visitors in 2011, for its best year ever. Bookings should beat that number this year, travel observers are predicting.
Travel experts say there is continued growth in the number of visitors from Canada, by far the biggest market for Cuba. There are also rising numbers from countries such as Russia and Argentina.
This high season has also seen a resurgence in visitors from Europe.
Cuba has attracted many Europeans who would have gone to North Africa but balked because of the "Arab Spring" uprisings, tourism officials say.
The political stability and lack of crime in tightly controlled Cuba are strong lures for visitors. Clean Cuban beaches are also an attraction.
Cuban Americans have been flooding into Cuba since U.S. President Barack Obama lifted restrictions for them to travel to their homeland in 2009.
But now the number of other American visitors is climbing after Obama changed regulations in 2011, making it easier for non-Cuban Americans to enter a country the US trade embargo made off-limits for the past 50 years.
Cuba’s new problem is a lack of infrastructure — particularly first-rate hotels — as well as food shortages to meet rising tourism demand.
By David Wilkening
David
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