• Submitted by: lena campos
• Travel and Tourism
• 12 / 28 / 2012

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The visit of South American tourists to Cuba increased until last Monday in over 22 percent compared to the same period of 2011, informed here sources from the Tourism sector.

Until December 24 a total of 163, 046 visitors from Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brasil, Uruguay and Paraguay travelled to the Caribbean archipelago, which represented a yearly increase of 22, 07 percent and a 49, 36 percent compared to 2010, detailed Luis Felipe Aguilera.

The director of the Office of Cuban Information and Tourism Promotion for South America stressed that according to preliminary reports, of this total the largest contribution was made by Argentina, with more than 92 800 visitors, number that exceeded the Annual Plan of 89 000.

Aguilera also commended the outstanding performance of the tour operations from Peru and Chile, which reported a growth of 29.18 and 16.93 percent, respectively.

That means that Cuba was already visited by about 27, 300 Chileans and almost 19,000 Peruvians, he said.

In the cases of Brazil (15, 362 visitors) and Uruguay (over 7, 900), both report increase compared to last year and must also meet the projected figures for 2012, he estimated.

Meanwhile, Paraguay, with 673 passengers, increased production by 24.63 percent, exceeding the projections.

The figures achieved by the Southern Cone markets contrast very favorably with the general behavior of the tourism emission to Cuba, which received over 2,700,000 visitors to grow by 4.63 percent compared to the same period of 2011.

Source: Prensa latina