Is Cuba to take Egypt’s place?
Russia along with Argentina turned out to be the leaders of the inbound tourist flow to Cuba in 2011. It was actually a record year for
Cuban authorities still have high hopes for the Russian market. And there’s a reason for that: the tourist flow from
Estefania Eskobar, Head of the Russian office of Cuban Ministry of Tourism, thinks the current tourist boom is only natural: “Last year we had many advertisement campaigns. Also a lot of new flights between our countries have recently been launched: from Moscow there are five flights by Aeroflot each week and two services by Transaero, and from Saint-Petersburg there’s a Transaero flight every 10 days”.
Russian tourists prefer beaches and guided tours, in particular tours of
Russian tour operators explain the interest towards Cuba by the constantly growing number of flights to this destination. But air transportation that is not supported by demand leads to dumping of prices on the market. “From mid January to February, which qualifies as the high season in Cuba, the demand is way lower than the supply. So instead of flying empty jets back and forth, carriers have to introduce special offers to get at least some money back”, - explains Elena Konkina, tour manager at ITC.
And, according to the expert, many tourists chose
Marina Mitkina, Head of the Caribbean department at Russian Express told that 2011 can really be qualified as the best year for
According to experts, the number of flights could be reduced during wintertime – that would only help the market. Operators are expecting the next wave of interest towards Cuba to rise in late March or in April.