Cuba expecting more than 200 cruise ships between now and April 2015

Cuba expecting more than 200 cruise ships between now and April 2015
Published November 13, 2014 EFE

Cuba is expecting the arrival of more than 200 cruise ships at various
ports on the island during the winter season, which will kick off this
month and last until April 2015, tourist sector authorities said Thursday.

The season will officially begin on Nov. 21 with the arrival in the port
of Havana of about 2,000 cruise ship passengers, most of them from
Europe, according to data provided by the Cubatur travel agency and
reported on Cuban television.

The state-run agency, which will book more than 75 percent of the cruise
ships that arrive during the season, added that among the ports with the
most passenger entries are Havana, Cienfuegos in the central part of the
island and Santiago de Cuba in the east.

Cruise ship tourism is one of the main areas in which Cuba is trying to
diversify its tourist offerings, along with cultural, nature, health,
coastal and golf tours.

Cruise ship arrivals to the island plummeted by 89 percent starting in
2006, the year in which Spanish firm Pullmantur shut down its operations
in Cuba after being acquired by Royal Caribbean Cruises, a U.S. company.

The sector remained virtually comatose over the next few years but in
2009 it began to perk up and in 2010 it experienced a new surge in
activity with the arrival of some 10,000 cruise passengers.

In recent years, the Cuban government has established stable operations
with international companies to rejuvenate the sector.

Tourism is the second-biggest economic activity in Cuba, after the
export of technical and professional services.

In 2013, the island welcomed about 2.85 million foreign tourists, with
Canada being the main sending nation, followed by the United Kingdom and
Germany. EFE

Source: Cuba expecting more than 200 cruise ships between now and April
2015 | Fox News Latino -
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/11/13/cuba-expecting-more-than-200-cruise-ships-between-now-and-april-2015/