World tourism recorded its worst year in 2020, with a 74 percent drop in international arrivals, the World Tourism Organization, the WTO, announced on its official website.

The world's leisure destinations received 1 billion fewer international arrivals than the previous year -- with an unprecedented slump in demand and widespread travel restrictions due to COVID-19.

The latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer publishes that the decline in international travel represents an estimated loss of 1.3 trillion dollars in export earnings, a number 11 times higher than the losses recorded during the global economic crisis of 2009.

Due to the rebound of the pandemic in 2021, many countries, including Cuba, apply stricter restrictions on foreign travelers, including mandatory tests and quarantines.

In this regard, Zurab Pololikashvili, UNWTO Secretary General, said that many actions has been done to make international travel safe, "but we are aware that the crisis is still far from over," he added.

In the case of our country, the tourism industry advances in the implementation of the Tourism + Hygienic and Safe (T + HS) program, whose objective is to preserve the health of workers and clients, the Cuban Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos recently published on his official Twitter account.

After four months of closure, Cuba reopened to foreign tourism on July 1, 2020, with measures such as physical distancing, isolation of facilities and frequent disinfection of hands and surfaces.