Havana, Jan 29 (Inditop.com/EFE) Cuba received 2.43 million foreign visitors last year, up 3.5 percent from 2008, but revenue from tourism fell 11 percent.
The 2.3 million tourists who came to the communist-ruled island in 2008 spent $2.74 billion, which fell to $2.43 billion in 2009, according to the National Statistics Office.
Canada accounted for the largest contingent of foreign visitors with more than 900,000, followed by Britain, Spain, Italy and France, state media said Thursday.
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 Latin American nation.
