Cuba saw a double-digit drop in the number of Canadians visiting the island nation this past winter, raising questions about what’s behind the slide.
Data from Cuba’s national statistical agency reveals that the number of Canadians travelling there was at least 30 per cent below last year’s numbers in January, February and March.
Yet the downward shift goes beyond visitors from Canada, with Cuba also reporting a decreasing number of tourist visits from Russia, Spain and Italy, among other countries.
The director of the Cuban Tourism Board in Toronto was out of the country this week and not available for comment. But the country’s national tourism minister has recently hinted at the “complex” challenges Cuba is facing.
Several domestic airlines and travel operators confirm they are seeing less travel to the Caribbean country that drew more than one million Canadian visitors annually in the years before the pandemic.
“The reported …