Cuba reports 1 million tourists so far this year

CNN 20 September 1998 Cuba reports 1 million tourists so far this year

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Cuba said it has received more than 1 million
tourists this year, reaching the mark more than a month before last year.

                  Eduardo Rodriguez, vice minister of tourism, told a news conference that the
                  country expects 1.4 million tourists this year, 1.7 million next year and 2
                  million in 2000. His remarks were reported by the government's Prensa
                  Latina news agency, monitored here.

Rodriguez said the country's tourism reached the 1 million mark for the first
time in December 1996. It hit the 1 million mark in November last year.

                  Canada and Italy have been the largest sources of tourism to Cuba, though
                  Rodriguez said tourism from Germany this year had increased by 63 percent
                  over last year to surpass Spain as Cuba's third-largest tourism market.

Tourism from the United States is sharply restricted by laws banning most
Americans from spending money on the communist island.