The Caribbean stimulates Canadian tourism
HAVANA, Oct 15 Cuban professor and researcher, José Luis Perelló, considered today that the main sun and beach destinations in the Caribbean encourage Canadian tourism.He expressed this criterion on his Facebook account and also pointed out that it is a strategy for the 2024 tourist season.
In that sense, he recalled that one of the main markets or scenarios for recreational trips in that area is Cuba, a nation that is currently seeking a recovery of its leisure industry.
The professor said that the main tourism leaders of the Caribbean participated last September in visits and meetings with Canadian authorities in the travel and tourism sector, with the aim of increasing the transfers of Canadians to their respective countries.
The Minister of Tourism of the Dominican Republic, David Collado, met with his Canadian counterpart, Soraya Martínez, with whom he discussed concrete plans that strengthen tourism relations between both nations and included his participation in Road Shows in Toronto and Montreal.
These meetings were attended by more than 200 tour operators, travel agents, and executives from the airlines Sunwing Travel Group and Air Canada Vacations. According to official statistics from the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, from January to August, the country received 620,425 Canadian tourists.
Also added is the visit of the Secretary of Tourism of Mexico, Miguel Torruco, who indicated that in 2023, the offer of scheduled seats from Canada to Mexico is three million 264 thousand seats.
This represents, he assured, 27 percent more than in 2022, in 17,024 scheduled flights, which means 26.7 percent above last year.
According to arrival figures to Cancun, the main sun and beach destination in the Mexican Caribbean, from January to August of this year, 914,815 Canadian tourists arrived.
On the other hand, the head of Jamaica’s Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, declared that his country aspires to receive half a million Canadians by 2025 and highlighted the launch of an initiative to increase air transportation from Canada.
He added that Canada is the third largest market for Jamaica, and they are just about to reach the figure of 300 thousand Canadian tourists for this year.
Cuba traditionally considers Canadian tourism as its main tourist market, visitors to the main sun and beach poles such as Varadero, Cayo Santa María, Holguín and Cayo Largo del Sur, Perelló recalled.
As of the end of September 2023, the island received 709,556 Canadian tourists, representing almost 40 percent of the total of 1,813,972 international visitors.
The expert concluded that in these nine months, 4,195 flights were registered with an offer of 808,028 marketable seats, from the airlines Air Canada, Air Transat, Sunwing, WestJet, and Swoop.
