Havana, May 11 (RHC-AAP) –- Cuba expects 2015 to surpass the record number of tourists and revenues it attracted in 2014, a year when the island's tourism industry reaped $US 2.7 billion.

Last year, for the first time, Cuba hit three million visitors, a 5.3 percent rise from 2013 and an upward trend that has continued in the first quarter of 2015, the Tourism Ministry said.

"Cuban tourism is at its best moment," AAP news agency quoted Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero as saying.

In order to boost the number of international tourists, Cuba is currently developing 53 projects to build hotels with a total of 5,492 rooms in the four and five-star categories, which will be added to 61,200 existing rooms in some 300 hotels.

Though Canada, China, Chile and Brazil are Cuba's chief sources of tourists, authorities have indicated that visitors from Venezuela, Germany and Italy are showing a "notable increase."