by Our Foreign Desk

US TOURISM to Cuba has increased by a third since Washington’s U-turn on its policy of economic blockade last year, University of Havana economist Jose Luis Perello Cabrera revealed this week.

The new climate of rapprochement and the gradual normalisation of relations has seen a 36 per cent increase in the number of US citizens visiting Cuba compared to last year.

This includes thousands flying in from third countries such as Mexico, the Bahamas, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to get around the
still-existing US restrictions on tourism to the socialist state.

Mr Perello, of the university’s tourism studies department, pointed to statistics showing a dramatic surge in the number of US visitors with no family ties to Cuba between January 1 and May 9 this year.

The figure increased to over 51,000, compared to 37,000 in the same period last year.

New Yorker David Perez, who travelled to Cuba in May through Cancun, said: “I had just always wanted to go to Cuba and I decided now was the time.”

Tourism from other countries has also increased by 14 per cent, from 1,350,000 visitors last year to 1,550,000.

Though the biggest rise was in the number of US tourists, Britain was in second place with a 26 per cent increase in visitors to Cuba.

Although the US Treasury Department still prohibits travel to Cuba for tourist purposes, travel regulations were eased in January after President Barack Obama announced detente with Cuba.

US lawyer Robert Muse claimed that “there’s been almost no active enforcement” of the tourism ban under the Obama administration.