Cuba Welcomes First Canadian Tourists in Months

Cuba rolled out the red carpet on Friday for the first planeload of tourists to arrive on the island nation in months as it struggles toward a post-pandemic new normalcy.

An Air Canada plane arrived at midday at the Cayo-Coco airport on the north central coast. Air Canada Vacations, the airline’s tour business, said it would now fly weekly to Cuba and biweekly beginning next month.

Cuba closed its airports in March due to the pandemic. While some hotels are open under international sanitary regulations at resorts in isolated areas such as Cayo-Coco, there is no indication when Havana and other cities might allow foreign visitors to return.

Cuba has managed to control the pandemic in most of the country. But it is currently trying to contain a new outbreak in Havana, along with lesser outbreaks in a few other provinces.

Canada has long been Cuba’s top travel outbound market, accounting for 1.1 million of the 4.2 million arrivals in 2019.

Source: The Toronto Sun