HAVANA - Cuba has become the third largest tourist destination in the Caribbean, Cuban Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said here Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the International Tourism Fair (FIT) Cuba 2011.

The minister said the island nation received about 30 million overseas visitors in the last decade.

More than 2.5 million visitors came to Cuba in 2010, a 4.2-percent increase from 2009. Canada, Britain, Spain, Argentina and Russia are the five countries accounting for most of the tourists.

Marrero said the figure would be much higher if the US citizens were not restricted from visiting because of the ongoing economic and political embargo imposed by Washington on Havana for "ideological differences" over the past 50 years.

Carlos Vogeler, regional representative of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), said the Caribbean in 2010 received about 20.2 million visitors and the regional revenues reached $22.4 billion.

The WTO expects to see the number of tourists arrivals continue to increase in 2011 up to 6 percent.