Cuba claims tourism success

Cuba claims tourism success
Monday, May 31, 2004 Posted: 0037 GMT (0837 HKT)

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Cuba celebrated on Sunday the arrival of a million tourists in record time, despite U.S. efforts to undermine the Communist nation's most important economic sector and amid a shake-up over corruption.

"In 2002, we reached the figure (a million visitors) on July 29 and in 2003 on June 29," said a statement from the Tourism Ministry, read out amid dancing and spiced rum drinks at Havana's Hotel Nacional.

The statement said the industry was on track to attract a record 2 million tourists this year.

The good news came as President George W. Bush targeted the industry in an effort to tighten the four-decade-old U.S. embargo on the island.
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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/05/30/cuba.tourism.reut/

terraists? ShrubCo would like to hear that.

Its amazing that out of the millions of tourists/travellers who have gone to Cuba in the last decade that none of them have taken a video of the torturous & repressive conditions that Cubans live under. :shrug:

I guess that'll take Americans be innovative enough to cough up that video footage. :eyes:

<sarcasm off>



Its good to see the rest of the world seeing the place though. Too bad that Americans are missing out.

The reason Cubans in Cuba don't tell strangers about their "real" political views is because they are so "scairt" a him.

Sometimes, you've noticed, they'll claim Americans are never allowed to get close enough to "real Cubans" and are kept inside the hotels and restaurants. Then when you tell them Americans rent cars and bikes and go all over the island, even staying with Cuban families, etc., etc., they insist that they are too afraid to tell you how afraid they are!

Meantime, as you have pointed out, Cuban-Americans come and go from Cuba daily on any of the flights from Los Angeles, New York, and Miami, going right back to that "gulag" as one poster has written here!

no wonder tourism is up.

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I know I'm not the only Canuk that is avoiding the border this year

and don't expect a whole lot of "brown" people either Goerge!!!

In the meantime, I miss NYC. :(