Malaysia and Cuba are exploring the potential for cooperation in the tourism sector, key to their economic development, says Mohd Akbal Setia, Vice President (Americas) of Tourism Malaysia.

Mohd Akbal during a meeting in Havana with representatives of various travel agencies during his two-day visit to Cuba (18 and 19 July) with the aim of improving bilateral relations focused on tourism said the industry is very important for their respective economies.

He had held a meeting with officials from the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, with whom he agreed that their respective countries have potential to establish profitable cooperation in this field for mutual benefit.

Also present at the meeting was Malaysian Charge d’Affairs to Cuba Chenderawasih Abdul Malak.

Mohd Akbal noted that work can be done to promote holiday travel in both directions and explore other opportunities.

During his presentation, the executive whose office was based in Los Angeles, United States, outlined the richness and diversity of the tourism products, and that the Malaysian destinations received an average of 26 million visitors per year, before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out at the beginning of 2020.

That flow provided the country with US$22.2mil (RM101mil) in income, according to official statistics.

Due to the pandemic, arrivals plummeted from 26.1 million in 2019 to 4,332,722 in 2020, a figure that bottomed out in 2021 with only 134,728 tourists setting foot on Malaysian soil.

Mohd Akbal explained that Malaysia was engaged in boosting the travel industry in order to return to pre-pandemic flows.

Malaysia was forced, like many others, to close borders in 2020 and 2021, which was a severe blow to this sector.

Already in 2022 when the doors began to reopen, the number of visitors rose to almost three million, a figure that was still insufficient since it represented only 12% of the arrivals in 2019. Authorities of the sector indicated that 2023 began more auspicious and thanks to enormous promotional efforts they are targetting 16 million arrivals.

Mohd Akbal recalled that as a sanitary measure, they first opened establishments in the destination of Langkawi, which became a large bubble where travellers had to stay for 17 days before being able to go to other holiday spots.

Industry executives estimate - he said - that Malaysia would be able to recover the existing tourist flow before the pandemic in another two years.

As a specialist in the area, Mohd Akbal commented that the main source market in the Americas was the United States, while in Latin America they were Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile.

"We would like to have at least a very small group from Cuba, and have Malaysian travellers enjoy the destinations on the island, and thus start a new era in our bilateral tourism ties," he said.