According to Tourism Ministry experts, Cuba has gained positions among travelers’ tourist preferences in the last few years until placing 8th in the list of the top destinations in the Americas.

The Island ranked 23rd place among the favorite tourist destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean for several years, welcomed over 1,9 million vacationers last year, and expects to welcome more than two million visitors this year.

The same sources added that Canada consolidated itself as the top-tourist-emitting market, with more than 450,000 travelers, which meant a 29,8% increase over the previous year.

The Canadians were followed by vacationers from Italy, Germany, France, Spain, UK and Mexico, who totaled 67% of the number of tourists, that arrived in Cuba in 2003.

Leisure industry, that has been the Cuban economic locomotive over the past few years, achieved a 13% growth last year, following a stage of international slump in the sector, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks against the USA of September 11, 2001.

(Taken from: Cubasi)