Havana - Tourism to Cuba, one of the few
bright spots in its ailing economy, has slid in the wake of
Hurricane Irma and the Trump administration's tighter
restrictions on travel to the Caribbean island, a Cuban tourism
official said on Monday.
Although the number of visitors rose nearly 20 percent in
2017, it fell 10 percent on the year in December, and is down
7-8 percent this month, Jose Manuel Bisbe York, the president of
Cuban state travel agency conglomerate Viajes Cuba, said.
Arrivals from the United States, which had surged in the
wake of the U.S.-Cuban detente in 2014, took the worst hit,
dropping 30 percent last December, he told Reuters.
"Since Hurricane Irma, we've seen arrivals shrink," Bisbe
York said on the sidelines of the event organized by U.S. travel
agency insightCuba to dispel tourist misperceptions about Cuba.
Irma hit in September, just as the tourism sector was taking
reservations for its high season from November to March.
Images of destruction put many would-be visitors off
although Cuba had fixed its tourism installations within two
months, said Bisbe York. Arrivals of Canadians, the largest
group of tourists to Cuba, were down 4-5 percent.
"But we see this as a temporary thing and what we are seeing
is that arrivals are recovering from month to month," said Bisbe
York, adding that Cuba would go ahead with its plans to launch
more than 15 hotels island-wide this year.
"The first trimester will be the most difficult, because
logically the change in the public perception takes time."
Occupancy rates at the hotels in Cuba managed by Spain's
Meliá Hotels International S.A. were down around 20
percent on the year in December and January, said Francisco
Camps, Melia's Cuba deputy general manager.
"From February though, we are already reaching figures
similar to those we had in previous years," he said.
Republican President Donald Trump's more hostile stance
towards Cuba than his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama looks
set to have a more lasting impact than Irma.
The number of US visitors had surged since the Obama
administration created greater exemptions to a ban on tourism to
the Caribbean's largest island and restored regular commercial
flights and cruises.
Arrivals reached a record 619 523 last year, up from 91 254
in 2014.
But the Trump administration in September issued a warning
on travel there due to a spate of alleged health attacks on U.S.
diplomats in Havana. In November, tighter travel regulations
also went into effect.
The double whammy seriously depressed US visits, American
tour operators and a cruise line said at Monday's event,
although in reality the restrictions remain looser than before
the detente and travel easier.
Cuba is also still one of the safest destinations worldwide,
they said.
"While the regulations he changed very little the perception
in the U.S. was that you no longer could travel to Cuba
legally," said insightCuba's Tom Popper, noting his agency's
reservations were down 50 percent this year.
"Part of hosting this event was to communicate that it is
100 percent legal to travel to Cuba."