Cuba reports more tourists, less revenue in '09

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba says more than 2.4 million tourists will come to the sun-kissed island by the end of the year, up 3.3 percent from 2008's record, though deep discounts and shorter stays mean vacation industry revenue is down overall.

The country will break the previous year's mark of 2.34 million visitors by nearly 80,000, fueled by 2,000 new hotel rooms in top tourist areas, including Havana and Varadero, a white-sand beach north of the capital, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

He did not say how much Cuban tourism took in, and, unlike in previous years, no information on vacation industry revenue was made public during the year-end meeting of Cuba's Parliament last week.

Marrero said in November that his ministry's revenue would fall about 11.7 percent, as Cuba has been forced to slash prices because of the global recession.

Foreign visitors generated more than $2.7 billion last year, a 13.5 percent increase from 2007.

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