Cuba lifts tourist visas for Chinese visitors, aiming to attract non-traditional markets

(18 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Havana, Cuba - 17 February 2024
1. Various of Air China plane taxiing at airport, greeted with water jets
2. Various of Chinese tourists arriving
3. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Li Jiazhen, Chinese tourist:
++STARTS ON CUTAWAY OF CHINESE TOURISTS AT JOSE MARTI AIRPORT++
“I feel very happy, and I am very glad to be here. I love the friendship between Cuba and China. We are brotherly countries.”
4. Various of Chinese tourists visiting Old Havana
STORYLINE:
A water salute greeted some 116 passengers at Havana's José Martí International Airport aboard an Air China flight on Friday.
The salute is traditionally used to celebrate aviation milestones.
It signalled the restart of the regular route between Beijing and Havana, as part of a Cuban government strategy to attract visitors from non-traditional markets for its ailing tourism sector and fight against the country's economic crisis.
Cuba recently announced that it would eliminate the visa requirement for Chinese tourists arriving to the island. The move came into effect on Friday.
“This is my first time visiting Cuba. I am very happy to be here,” said Liuruiping, one of the first Chinese tourists to enter the island without a visa.
Air China had previously developed flights to Cuba passing through Montreal with cargo and passengers. However, these were suspended in 2020 because of COVID-19.
“I feel very happy, and I am very glad to be here. I love the friendship between Cuba and China,” Li Jiazhen, a 34-year-old doctor who studied on the island between 2009 and 2016, said excitedly upon her arrival. “We are brotherly countries.”
Before the COVID-19 pandemic when the tourism industry was thriving , 4.2 million people visited Cuba.
In 2023 this dropped to about 2.4 million.
A reception marking the flight's arrival was attended by the Chinese ambassador to Cuba, Ma Hui, Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz and other high-ranking officials, an indication of the importance given to the arrival of Air China by the island's authorities.
“The resumption of direct flights between China and Cuba will be a practical measure to deepen tourism cooperation and a support to Cuba's economic recovery,” said Ma.
“This decision we have taken on visa-free travel should bring results and facilitate these exchanges,” said Marrero Cruz.
The COVID-19 pandemic and a radical tightening of the embargo on the island by the United States has hit the sector.
AP video shot by Osvaldo Angulo and Milexsy Durán
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