Cuba: Russian Tourist Flow to Set New Record

The flow of Russian tourists to Cuba is nearing a new record today, as over 60 thousand visitors have enjoyed the island´s beaches, health services, culture and other attractions.

Estefania Escobar, director in Moscow of the office representing Cuban Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) explained to Prensa Latina the figure is the result of the joint effort of touroperators and travel agencies, after getting 75 thousand tourists to visit Cuba last year.

As part of the efforts to increase the number of Russian tourists to the island, a delegation of over a dozen hotel chains and travel agencies from Cuba participate in the 18th International Moscow Tourism Fair Leisure-2012.

Escobar said they organizad a Cuban Night with the attendance of about 200 touroperators, travel agencies and airline companies, joined by a Cuban group attending a business bilateral committee and the island’s official delegation.

The representative of Mintur in the Community of Independent Status and in several East European nations, declared that as part of the promotion work they offer seminars to Russian enterprises, aimed at familiarizing their counterpart about the Cuban destiny.

This work is part of the Authentic Cuba campaign, shown to the public along Moscow streets with a catchy slogan, “this is only the beginning”.

The promotion in the regional market starts with the presentation next October at the Saint Petersburg Tourism Fair, advanced Escobar.

Besides sun and beaches, there is a great demand for health tourism and ecological tour packages.

There are also special cultural offers for dance loving tourists, with the International Ballet Festival held from October 28 to November 7th last year.

Other popular events have been the Longest Son in the World that won a Record Guinness with 300 hours of that well known genre of Cuban music. More recently the largest Daiklri ever prepared with 83 three-liter bottles of rum Havana Club for 73 thousand drinks.