Havana - Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero is visiting on Tuesday Canada, the main tourist market to this country, with one-week tours of Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Marrero has been meetings since October 1 with Canadian Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie, Melanie Joly, and other executives of that country, Cubadebate website posted.

The visitor will also carry out an extensive program of meetings with directors of the Quebec of Hospitality and Tourism Institute, tour operators working in the Cuban market such as Transat, Sunwing and Hola Sun, as well as Air Canada, among other important entities linked to the sector.

Canada is the main tourist market to Cuba, with more than one million visitors each year, so this will be an opportunity to reaffirm the existing ties in this sector between both countries, the note says.

Cuba has 69,286 hotel rooms, 69 percent of which are in four-and-five-star establishments. According to official estimates, about 5,000 new hotel rooms are scheduled for completion this year.

Official data show that Cuba received about 4,689,894 foreign visitors, accounting for an 11.6-percent growth, which compared to the rest of the Caribbean region, such operations meant a 16.2-percent increase.