MADRID, Spain. – Just a few days after the deaths of three Cubans due to the collapse of a multi-family building in Old Havana on October 3rd, the official press confirmed the inauguration of a five-star hotel –the Meliá Trinidad Península- for tourism high season.
Managed by the Spanish hotel chain Meliá Hotels International and located in Playa María Aguilar, the luxury hotel features 401 guest rooms, both “standard” and “level”, and the capacity for self-sufficiency energy-wise with a platform of 1,500 solar panels and a hot-water system operated by solar panels as well. All this is happening while the Cuban population endures daily blackouts and water shortages.
According to Prensa Latina, “the select ‘The Level’ area offers personalized attention, and aims to welcome families, couples or groups (18 years of age and older) with privacy and intimacy and a high level of services.”
The hotel facility also will provide “its own transportation for fieldtrips to the social and cultural attractions” of the region.
The hotel also features seven bars and seven restaurants, as well as formal spaces for holding events, meetings and celebrations, aimed especially to business and leisure groups.
According to Juan Pereira, its general director, quoted by Prensa Latina, “this Meliá meets the highest standards of excellence, it’s the flagship hotel facility in the second most important beach in Cuba after Varadero,”
Renier Rendón, assistant director for the Cuban side, said that “the commitment of all workers here is to aim for excellence in one of the most visited beach resorts in the country.”
Although tourist occupancy in Cuba is extremely low, the regime continues to remodel old and build new hotels, to the detriment of public health facilities, education, and housing in the island.
After last week’s building collapse and the death of three people, the people’s first reaction was to criticize the non-stop construction of hotel facilities on the part of the regime which claims to have no construction materials with which to guarantee housing to thousands of families who are living in shelters or in buildings on the verge of collapse.
