Cuba to register record number tourists in 2011

Cuba is expected to register a record number of 2.7 million tourists in 2011, a release from the Ministry of Tourism said on Friday. The release said the Caribbean country received 2,531,745 visitors in the period from Jan. 1 to Dec. 13 this year, and with two weeks to go before the end of this year, a total of 2.7 million tourists are expected to arrive in the country for the whole year.Most of the tourists were from Canada and Britain, and Cuba also saw increasing visitors from Russia, Argentina as well as European and Latin American countries, the ministry said. "To welcome over 2 million tourists in a year shows our strong position in the international tourism market amid the changing world situation,"the release said.Tourism is Cuba's second largest contributor of hard currency, earning 2.1 billion U.S. dollars annually. The country is expected to receive 3 million visitors in 2012. To achieve that goal, the Cuban government is opening the tourism sector to foreign investment to promote the construction of golf courses, new hotels and resorts.According to Cuba's reform agenda, tourism is one of the priority sectors to be developed to lift the country out of poverty.