PMO Zone Blog

Growing tourist markets

Foreign investment in the Cuban tourism sector has increased steadily since the tourism drive. Cuban immigration officers do not stamp passports so Americans can keep their visits private. Americans usually reach Cuba via flights from Toronto, Montreal or Cancun. Germans have visited Cuba annually. By 1995 the industry had surpassed sugar as Cuba’s chief earner. A new Ministry of Tourism was created in 1994, and the Cuban state invested heavily in western caribbean cruise tourist facilities. Policies were drawn up to satisfy the growing tourist markets of Canada and Europe with an aim to replace Cuba’s reliance on the sugar industry and gain much needed foreign currency rapidly. The crisis precipitated an urgent need to find new avenues of national income.