Tourism to Cuba will likely drop 8.5% this year in the wake of tighter U.S. restrictions on travel to the Caribbean island, and the decline in arrivals will further hurt Cuba’s already ailing centrally planned economy.
Last month the US government banned cruise ships and private planes and yachts from traveling to the island and ended a heavily used educational category of travel allowed as an exemption to the overall ban on U.S. tourism.
“These measures sparked a 20.33% reduction in tourist activity,” the Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said to state news agencies in a speech to the National Assembly.