• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 08 / 26 / 2011

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Reflecting higher hotel prices and additional hotel capacities, tourism revenues rose 13.1 percent in the first six months of this year, the latest data of the Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE) suggest.

Despite rising prices, tourists keep coming. The ONE data indicates that 1.537 million foreign tourists visited Cuba in the first six months of the year, up 10.6 percent over last year. Overnight stays rose 9.1 percent, from 9.3 million last year to 10.2 million in the first half of 2011.

This is good news for the Cuban economy, which has been caught in a cash crunch since 2008. While the number of tourists continued to grow throughout the global recession, per-tourist income apparently stagnated or even dropped from 2008 through 2010. ONE only recently began to track tourism revenue systematically.

To be sure, a continued weakness is low occupancy rates. According to ONE, occupancy in Cuban hotels was a low 53.3 percent in the first half of this year. That’s up from a rock-bottom 51 percent in the same period last year.

According to the official data, total income from tourism between January and July was US$1.069 billion, compared to $974.74 million in the same period the year before. The biggest jump in revenues — plus 28 percent — came from lodging.

Tourism-related retail sales rose 14.9 percent, transportation 10.9 percent, and gastronomy 7.5 percent. Meawhile, tourism-related recreation spending dropped 16.1 percent.

Last year, tourism revenues were $2.1 billion from some 2.5 million visitors. This year, the tourism ministry expects 2.7 million visitors.

Source: /www.cubastandard.com/2011/08/25/tourism-revenues-showing-robust-growth/