Cuba Tourist Rose in 2009, but Revenues Fell

Cuba received 2.43 million visitors from abroad last year, a gain of 3.5 percent from 2008, but revenue from tourism fell 11 percent, state media said Thursday.

The 2.3 million tourists who came to the communist-ruled island in 2008 spent $2.74 billion, according to figures from the National Statistics Office.

Canada accounted for the largest contingent of foreign visitors to Cuba in 2009, more than 900,000, followed by Britain, Spain, Italy and France.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said Wednesday that nearly 300,000 Cubans residing abroad were among last year’s visitors to the island, a number he described as unprecedented.

Tourism is a key source of hard currency for the cash-strapped Cuban government, which is struggling with a lack of liquidity amid the country’s worst recession in decades.