China, France to Attend Cuba´s Next Tourism Fair as Special Guests

Cuba is revving up to get the fifth edition of the International Tourism Fair on the road from May 10 to 13 and has announced that China and France will be this year´s nations of honor.

The event, that gathers tour operators and industry professionals from everywhere under the sun, will this time around take place in Havana and will zero in on the travel destinations of Santiago de Cuba and the island nation´s capital.

For the largest Caribbean island, the travel industry has long accounted for its top income source with nearly $2 billion worth of revenues every year. In 2004, Cuba cracked the two-million-tourist plateau for the first time ever and hopes to reach a new milestone of 2.3 million foreign trippers in 2005.

In an effort to ease attendance to the fair, sources from the Cuban Tourism Ministry told Caribbean News Digital that Cubana de Aviacion, the island nation´s flagship airline, will make special discount offers for would-be participants. Planners are hoping other air carriers to follow suit and put out similar money-saving fares as well.

Last year´s International Tourism Fair took place in Varadero, Cuba´s premier sun-and-sand destination, and brought together over a thousand industry professionals, including 593 representatives from 145 tour operators and travel agencies.