Cuban Regime Invited to the Tourism Law Observatory

SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico. – Officials of the Cuban regime were invited to the Tourism Law Observatory of the Americas and the Caribbean, which began Wednesday, September 4^th at the organization’s headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Juan José Álvarez, the legal director of the Cuban Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR, by its Spanish acronym), is representing the regime to “contribute” the island’s experience in tourism.

In an interview with Prensa Latina, the official said that the Observatory, the first of its kind in the world, is part of the work of UN Tourism in the region.

“Cuba will present the values that underpin its tourism policy, based on peace and security,” he assured.

He also explained that in the first phase, the Observatory will conduct an assessment of tourism legislation in the area, with the aim of promoting legal proposals and best practices.

Álvarez told the official press that Cuba is drafting a Tourism Law bill, which includes “various experts, among them from the Law and Tourism faculties of the University of Havana.”

The bill is scheduled to be put to a vote in December 2025, according to the schedule approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power. However, no details were provided about the possible topics that the law might address.

Regarding this, Álvarez considered that approval of the legislation will be “a moment of consolidation of what the country has achieved in tourism,” highlighting that they have “made progress” in tourism law matters.

This year, the Cuban regime set a goal to improve customer service, as their feedback, according to the government, would help reverse the “defamation campaigns” against Cuba.

Beyond the conspiracy theories with which regime officials continue to justify the tourism crisis, the sector remains far from the levels it reached before the coronavirus pandemic.

Although 800,000 more tourists visited in 2023 than in the previous year, the numbers remain far from those of 2018 and 2019.

As sector officials acknowledged on the Mesa Redonda television program, some problems are still affecting the flow of travelers to the island.

Referring to the “obstacles” that they claim triumphantly must be overcome, the Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, mentioned that the quality of customer service needs to be improved, “so that their opinions become the main tool to counter defamation campaigns against Cuba.”

He highlighted that the main issues are due to the low availability of financial resources, which affects the promotion of the destination and the visibility of the tourism product. Other difficulties, such as limitations in Cuban airlines, prevent more excursions and tourist circuits from being carried out. On top of that, the price of fuel is high, he said.

Priorities 

The sector is one of the priorities on the Island, as demonstrated by the Cuban regime’s investment portfolio.

The Cuban regime doubled its investment in hotels and restaurants during the period from January to June 2024. Everything indicates that the Cuban government continues to bet on the hotel industry, even though it is far from meeting its forecasts for the sector.

During the same period, that figure rose to 4.931 in 2024, which implies an increase of 112%.

In the area of Business Services, Real Estate Activities, and Rentals, which includes hotel construction, 11.389 billion pesos were allocated, representing 26.4% of the total budget.

Hotels and restaurants (with 11.4%) and the previous sector (26.4%), followed by manufacturing (with 19.5%), together account for more than 50% of total investments.

However, between January and July, Cuba welcomed a total of 1,463,097 international travelers, a figure lower than that for the same period the previous year, although they continue to allocate more resources to this sector.

The number represents 1.8% fewer arrivals than those recorded from January to July 2023, according to data provided by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI, by its Spanish acronym).

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