Between 2,500 and 3,500 Russian tourists could travel weekly to Varadero starting next April 1, when the Russian Federation will restore flights between Moscow and Cuba’s main sun and beach destination.
According to the Cuban Embassy in the capital of the Eurasian country, the resort located north of Matanzas is ready to receive Russian tourists and offer them “a comfortable stay in safe epidemiological conditions,” Cubadebate reported.
The flights to Varadero of the airlines Aeroflot, Rossiya, AZUR Air, NordWind and Royal Flight will restart in April as a result of the negotiations carried out by the Cuban delegation at the International Tourism Fair held from March 16 to 18 in Moscow, the source indicated.
The most famous sun and beach destination on the island, whose beaches are among the 25 best in the world according to TripAdvisor, requires visitors to comply with health protocols that include the presentation of a negative PCR certificate for coronavirus, carried out 72 hours before the departure of the flight, and carrying out the same test upon arrival at the Cuban airport.
Russian tourism to Cuba registered an increase of close to 30% in 2019 when the island received almost 178,000 visitors from that Eurasian country, a figure cataloged as a record for that market that has become one of the emerging issuers to the island.
The Cuban Ministry of Tourism estimated that in 2020 the number of Russian visitors would reach 200,000, but the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed the tourism sector globally for several months and blurred the recovery plans and eventual growth on the island.
At the end of that year, the Eurasian country was placed among the top 10 issuing market of visitors to the Caribbean nation, with a total of 47,742 travelers, despite the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19. Official figures specify that so far in 2021, about 13,800 Russian travelers have vacationed in the different tourist destinations operating in Cuba.
