Cuba welcomed a record 3,139,764 international visitors from January to November in 2015, a 17.6% increase from the same period in 2014.
Of those, 147,401 visitors came from the United States, about 62,000 more than the previous year, thanks to a warming relationship and more relaxed official travel guidelines.
Canada accounts for the most foreign travelers in Cuba, according to Cuba's National Statistics and Information Office, and the next largest groups came from Germany, France, Britain and Italy. The office also noted gains in tourist arrivals from Japan, Haiti, Costa Rica, Ireland and Poland.
Travelers from countries without legal barriers to vacationing in Cuba may be trying to get a visit in ahead of an upcoming flood of tourists.
Although Cuba has been off limits to U.S. citizens (who are still technically not allowed to go on vacation there) for half a century, it is not new to international tourism. The country ranks third in the Caribbean in international arrivals, behind the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.
Visit- #Viñales #Cuba#TourGuide @casameily #Horseriding #photography https://t.co/5MaWSpVSAy Book your ✈️ here. pic.twitter.com/xbexHZ3vTs— Casa Viñales Cuba (@CasaMeily) December 25, 2015
Those and other Caribbean countries that rely on tourism revenue have shown conflicted feelings about the possibility of an official end to the U.S. ban on tourism.
When that likely happens, U.S. visitors may find the previously forbidden destination more appealing than the tried and true. The U.S. and Cuba reached an agreement to soon allow scheduled regular commercial flights, which is just the latest move toward easier and more abundant travel between the two countries.
However, Cuba's tourism infrastructure has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to accommodating tens or hundreds of thousands more visitors.