Canada is a Leading Market of Tourists to Cuba

[dipsydoodle]

Havana, April 2 (PL) Canada is currently leading market of tourists to Cuba, when a total of 593 230 international travelers arrived in the country during the first two months of this year.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics and Information (Onei) said Canada send during that period 284 654 visitors.

After Canada among major senders are: Germany with 23 268 tourists, France with 22 158, United Kingdom 21 942, Argentina 21 245, Mexico brought 11 801, India reached 833 and Spain with 596.

Last year Cuba received two million 838 thousand 607 foreign tourists, annual record for this destination thus achieved a growth of about 4.5 percent and predicted the possibility of closing the 2013 with three million foreign tourists.

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1268841&Itemid=1

Odd they didn't mention Holland - they get shed loads from there too. From Holland you can get direct flights to Holquin.

[newfie11]

1. Mean while in our free country

We cannot go to Cuba. As the old song says...
"Only way to see Cuba is with the CIA"

[Judi Lynn]

2. Great news! God forbid any innocent, wholesome, "We're Number One" U.S. Americans

should have to go there, however, and accidently bump into any of those Commie Canibals they have there, chanting their "voodoo spells" and doing their crazy sinful dances. Best keep U.S. Americans all safe back in the U.S., where their pure minds won't be poisoned, and voodoo guys can't throw spells on them and turn them into commies.

Would never have known you can get a direct flight from Holland to Holguin if you hadn't told us, D.D. Pretty good deal.

Thanks.

If our gummint keeps us out of Cuba you can be sure it's for our own good. Dictators might get us, otherwise.

[JoeBlowToo]

3. You can go to Cuba, but it has to be an "educational exchange"

But after decades of false starts, the Obama administration has reinstituted legal travel to Cuba as a way to reach out to the Cuban people.

It's called "people-to-people" travel, and like nearly everything involving Cuba, controversy and politics are involved.

"Each traveler must have a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that will result in meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in Cuba," U.S. Treasury Department guidelines for people-to-people travel read.

And while the policy has kicked off a debate over what is a "meaningful" exchange, a flood of tour operators has entered the still uncertain world of travel to Cuba.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/travel/cuba-tourism

The trips aren’t your typical Caribbean vacation. Rather, the focus is on meeting local citizens and learning about the culture, not beach hopping and mojito-swilling. Days are filled with busy itineraries that may include visiting orphanages or speaking with musicians or community leaders. Guidelines published by the Treasury Department say the tours must “have a full-time schedule of educational exchange activities that will result in meaningful interaction between the travelers and individuals in Cuba.” But besides the mingling, the trips — which can range from $1,800 for a long weekend in Havana to more than $4,000 for a week — usually include opportunities to visit historic sites like Old Havana, or, for longer itineraries, a visit to Cienfuegos, a picturesque city in the South.

In terms of hotels, “service may not be quite as good and the Internet connection is incredibly slow and frustrating,” said Ms. Moore of Distant Horizons. But, she said, “they have all the facilities you’d expect: swimming pools, little gyms. And there are a lot of very good private restaurants.”
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/travel/at-long-last-legal-trips-to-cuba.html

[dipsydoodle]

4. "Internet connection is incredibly slow and frustrating"

So what - I've never heard of anyone going there who would rank that as being important.

@ $4,000 for a week someone is having a laugh given the proximity of the US compared with either Canada , Europe or Russia. First time I went I toured most of the island east of Havana for two weeks and then spent a week at a resort for less than $3000 - majority of that was all inclusive including 24 hour drinks. The figure of $1,800 for a long weekend sounds even weirder - I've got Dutch friends who get 16 days for about $1000.

[Bacchus4.0]

5. dual exchange rate I assume. tourists pay more don't they?

Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru are much cheaper still. All have ubiquitous and fast internet service too.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Yes

My only experience , not that I bothered to use it , was of the connections available at hotels with payment in the convertible pesos which tourists use. I've no idea what the staff / locals pay and it never occurred for me to ask despite chatting with them incessantly.

Apparently the charges by providers which you would pay for internet downloads using a smartphone are completely through the roof - I'm not sure who benefits from those charges. Normal calls using a mobile back to home country are not exactly cheap either. When I'm there I shut down voicemail completely before I go and just use text messages to communicate with my daughter - the only person I bother to keep in touch with.

[Bacchus4.0]

7. I have an unlocked phone to use when traveling but just use it locally

Buy a chip in country and you are set. Most decent quality hotels have WiFi these days and its free in the countries I tend to visit anyway.

[riverbendviewgal]

12. if you have a blackberry and those back home have one you can text free to each other

This can be done to any other blackberry in the world. Even in Cuba. My friends stayed in touch with her sons while she was in Cuba.

[joshcryer]

10. You pay a premium for safety, imo.

Cuba has a violence level similar to western states, while Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia are increasingly violent / deadly (in that order, Peru is only twice as dangerous as Cuba when you look at the numbers, so it'd be my first choice).

[riverbendviewgal]

13. no way

My friends have been going there for years. Very very safe. Wow that is so shocking as I lots of Canadians who have gone to Cuba.

Now going to Florida I know of Canadians and UK people who have met up with violence.

[joshcryer]

16. I think you misread.

That's what I said, if you pay more for visiting, the reason you'd do it is because it's much safer.

[riverbendviewgal]

11. how about $986 cdn all inclusive including air fare

For a week on the beach, big ultra clean rooms, 7 pools, all you can drink and eat, activities ( for the kids as well) and shows. People are sweet and respectful.

[dipsydoodle]

14. That's cheaper than the UK too

but then you're closer so less air travel. The Canadians make me laugh - they go to the bar with litre cold vacuum flasks and just say "fill it up" I don't actually drink very much but its great being able to go to the bar in just board shorts and drink rum punch at 3am when I can't sleep.

btw CNN etc are the Pacific ones so the news isn't all that.

[riverbendviewgal]

15. yep did you try the drink Crazy Canadian?

Lovely drink that is popular there. My friends made them for me when they got back. I am going next year.

[sabrina 1]

17. Well that is far more important than, say, their infant mortality rate which

is way better than ours.

What a country. All those 'freedoms' we supposedly have but we have to get permission from the Government before we go on vacation. Why Americans put up with this garbage is beyond me.

Just go to a free country and travel from there.

[riverbendviewgal]

8. i know people here in Canada that have been going for years.

Cuban people are very nice,

when I worked in toronto and used public transportation, my bus driver and I had a conversation about vacations,. He said he was vacationing for many years, before Castro and after. The driver said the people were much better off with Castro. They have food, shelter, education, medical care and there is not the immense begging and prostitution that existed under Batista and regimes before him all supported by the USA..

Up here we are not looking forward to when Americans start coming. Then it will get more expensive and the corporations will kill that beautiful country.
My friends said at their resort they got Canada TV and British BBC and CNN. In English.

[Judi Lynn]

9. It's great reading your words, and the remarks made by the guy who went there long ago.

Very. very interesting.

Not surprised people want to see the country unexploited, not trashed, used up, used poorly, overrun by thoughtless people. Don't blame Canadians one bit.

Hope Cuba can keep some rules intact to prevent as much damage as possible from being inflicted by the new wave, when it comes. Hope their ability to protect themselves against disasters, as in hurricanes, their unity, can help them keep loud, pushy, rude, overbearing visitors from the States.