“More than 65 thousand Russian tourists visited Cuba in 2016, which is 50% higher than a year earlier”, - said in the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) on Friday. "In 2017 the number of Russian tourists may return to pre-crisis indicators. More than 70 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation can visit Cuba. So far, in the modern history of the Russian-Cuban tourist relations the most successful year for Cuba is 2012, when the country was visited by about 87 thousand Russians", - said in a statement of ATOR.

“For 11 months of 2016 Cuba was visited by 52.6 thousand Russians, which is almost 39% more than for the same period of the last year”, - reported in the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) on Tuesday. "This figure has already exceeded the number of tourists from Russia for the whole 2015 - 43 thousand tourists.

Russian airline AZUR air operated its first charter flight from Moscow Domodedovo airport to the Cuban resort of Varadero. The flights will be operated twice a week on Boeing-767-300. This is the second line of the route network AZUR air in the Caribbean. Since fall 2015, the company successfully carries out flights from Moscow to Punta Cana. In September 2016 also flights from Saint Petersburg to the Dominican Republic started.

Azur Air has announced the expansion of its route network in the 2019/2020 autumn-winter schedule, including from Russian regions. The carrier will also increase the intensity of flights to its traditional destinations.