Cuba serves as 3rd largest Caribbean tourist destination

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Xinhua

Cuba serves as 3rd largest Caribbean tourist destination
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-04 14:17

HAVANA - Cuba has become the third largest tourist destination in the Caribbean, Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said here Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the International Tourism Fair (FIT) Cuba 2011.

The minister said the island nation received about 30 million overseas visitors in the last decade.

More than 2.5 million visitors came to Cuba in 2010, a 4.2-percent increase from 2009. Canada, Britain, Spain, Argentina and Russia are the five countries accounting for most of the tourists.

Marrero said the figure would be much higher if the US citizens were not restricted from visiting because of the ongoing economic and political embargo imposed by Washington on Havana for "ideological differences" over the past 50 years.

Read more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2011-05/04/content_12443501.htm

[dipsydoodle]

1. Swings and roundabouts

American tourists could act as a deterrent for the others going there.

:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Oh, yeah! You're right! A DU'er from Canada who went there many times said the same!

Freecancat said she had spoken with others from Europe who concurred they like Cuba just as it is and dread the time hordes of US Americans are going to be swarming all over the island!

Hope the crowds will observe a bit of self-control, but some people feel you're cramping their style if you try to get them to be civilized!

Just in case, perhaps you'd better take a whole lot of short trips back before the deluge!

[flamingdem]

12. So true Americans mess up the scenery

if one wants a break from them, however the Cubans see them as much more generous than Europeans or Asians so they love them!

[Fuddnik]

3. Cuba is a mythological place.

It doesn't really exist. At least not in the US.

[dipsydoodle]

4. Nice one

:rofl:

[YewNork]

5. Well, I've never seen Cuba's birth certificate, have you?

[liberal N proud]

6. As I understand, Cuba was once a very beautiful destination

With many upscale resorts.

Maybe it still is, but we may never know.

[dipsydoodle]

7. It remains so

without the "upscale resorts". I spent 3 weeks there last October and its just a wonderful place to be.

[roberto IS beto]

8. Would love to go there

I would love to go to Cuba for a winter vacation, but it's just so DARN dangerous!
Remember all of theose old, vintage cars in Cuba? Like 57 Chevys and such? Know where to buy one? Toronto. London. Paris. Berlin. Just about anywhere except Cuba and the U.S.

[Grey]

9. Cuba is a lovely place to vacation.

We spent 2 weeks there and really enjoyed it, I would love to go back.
At one of the little cafes we stopped at for lunch, there was a young english woman who was doing a tour of cuba with just a back pack and rollerblades. She overnighted with cuban families that had small rooms to rent. We saw several little signs at peoples front gate. She was spending a month getting to know the people and the country. Just so darn dangerous?

[Vidar]

10. Bravo Cuba, and I apologize for the US being such a hideous neighbor.

[polly7]

11. I loved Cuba, the white-sand beaches are glorious. It's a great vacation. nt.

[flamingdem]

13. It's quite pristine, let's hope they maintain that over the next decades nt

[ooglymoogly]

14. All those white sand beaches that our gubment mafias can't exploit;

to say nothing of all that sun ripened united fruit and sugar cane to steal and manipulate with futures and such; the billboard franchses, the huge new drug and health market for our drooling honest brokers on Wall ST.....fugedaboudit.

It is no wonder "our" $tate dpt is in such a dither over Cuba. A great big sparkling jewel, just laying there, in the emerald, crystal clear waters of the Caribbean and just 24 mi. off the Fl. coast, ready to plunder and our greedy gaggle of gubment cronies AKA Wall st banksters and the now infamous 400 can't touch it; cant wet their beaks, so to speak.

Oh the humanity! Almost makes you want to cheer for the justice of it all. One thing the greedy neocons cannot abide is to be irrelevant; especially where great gobs of money are just begging to be purloined.