Tourists in Cuba tend to appreciate its "unique character (as) one of the world's last remaining bastions of Communism," and many who fear the country will soon be "Americanized" due to warming relations with the United States are flocking to the island to take in the traditional flair, the Associated Press reported.

In the weeks after Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced a joint attempt to re-establish full diplomatic ties between Washington and Havana, a New York tour operator's bookings to Cuba jumped 57 percent; in February, they were up 187 percent, and so far this month, nearly 250 percent, the news service noted.

"The boom is just one sign that the rush is on to see Cuba now -- before, as many predict, McDonald's claims a spot in Old Havana and Starbucks moves in on Cubita, the island's premium coffee brand," the AP judged.

Gay Ben Aharon, an Israeli tourist who recently visited Havana's Revolution Square, explained the anxiousness shared by many travelers.

"Cuba has a very authentic atmosphere which you see nowhere else in the world," he noted. "I wanted to see it before the American world ... but also the modern Western world comes here."

In the first trimester of 2015, a million tourists have made their way to Cuba, 14 percent more than the year before, Martí Noticias said based on numbers from the country's Ministry of Tourism. Most visitors were from Canada, and the number of guests from countries including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom increased markedly, the website added.

Meanwhile, InsightCuba, the tour operator based in New Rochelle, New York, is adding excursions to satisfy exploding demand, Tom Popper, the company's president, told the AP.

"It's a huge surge," Popper said. "Word's gotten out and people are communicating that they want to go before Cuba changes."

In 2014, Cuba had welcomed more than 3 million tourists, a surge of 5.3 percent over the previous year, according to Martí Noticias. The figure includes about 600,000 American travelers exempt from the restrictions stemming from the continuing U.S. embargo against the Communist country.