Despite the devastation of Hurricane Irma this past September and the U.S. State Department travel warning, international tourist arrivals to Cuba has already surpassed last year’s numbers, 54 days earlier than in 2016. Last year, 4 million tourists spent their vacations in Cuba. In the first six months of 2017, La Prensa Latina reported that 2,530,000 tourists had come to Cuba, an increase of 22% for the same period last year. Cuba’s Tourism Minister, Manuel Marrero, said the country has fully recovered from the ravages of the Hurricane. Many international travel companies and airlines visited recently to verify the conditions of their Cuban destinations. After the hurricane ripped through the northeastern coast of the Island as far west as Havana, Cuba embarked on an ambitious mission to have all resorts back in order by the start of the high tourist season on November 1. The destruction left by the hurricane closed more than 16,000 hotel rooms, especially in the northern cays.Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading. There was very little damage in Varadero, Cuba’s most popular resort destination. A few hotels were missing roof tiles and were fixed by mid-October. Hotels, resorts and airports in the Santa María, Coco and Guillermo Cays…
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