Not in the least ambitious is the government’s aspiration to raise Cuba’s hotel capacity to 95,000 guest rooms and to exceed the 6 million tourist mark by 2030, when we take into consideration the unbridled construction of hotels and the arrival of 4.7 million foreign visitors in 2018.
That year, American tourists made the difference. But in 2019, former president Trump’s sanctions against Cuba went into effect and in March 2020 came the closing of borders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the reopening to international travelers on November 15, 2021, Cuban authorities expected to welcome 100,000 visitors by the end of the year, in addition to 203,806 in the month of January. No official statistics have been published, but the surge of the coronavirus Omicron variant probably interfered with the attainment of said goal.
In a meeting with businessmen this January 16, shortly before their participation in the International Tourism Fair FITUR 2022, Cuba’s minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda, presented them with new projects. The minister emphasized Cuba’s strengths (based on vaccination of the population with three Cuban-made vaccines) in order to attract Spanish participation, which today makes up 62% of joint ventures.
Cuba signed an agreement with Meliá to provide health services to clients who stay in their hotel facilities: massages, yoga therapy, relaxation and anti-stress programs. The minister emphasized the increase in the number of hotels with golf courses and marinas; the potentials of the tourism pole in Cienfuegos; and the great construction capacity in Varadero, Havana, Holguín and Matanzas, according to Prensa Latina.
However, it will be necessary to overcome many obstacles. Foreign investment, for one, will be necessary; they have been sought after for years, to no avail: Cuba invests while foreign businessmen execute contracts for management, training and publicity.
A tourist destination is not attractive if its domestic situation is tense, and the whole world questions the repression it visits upon its citizens when they demonstrate peacefully –as they did on July 11, 2021- and the long prison terms –as much as 25 years- they are sentenced to. In addition, in the island which is also penalized by the U.S., we live with the burden of shortages and shopping lines that are required to purchase even the most basic products.
Prices at tourist facilities should be made attractive, even if that reduces to a minimum the domestic profit. The quality of services and the efficiency of workers who are discouraged by the low wages -once compensated by tips from American tourists- will have to be raised.
The probability of change and opening toward Cuba, as well as the end of sanctions from the U.S. government that were launched by Trump and increased by Biden, are not in the horizon for the next few years. Millions of tourists will not return to Cuba.
Canada, Spain and other European countries are taking the lead in the tourism market, while the number of Russian tourists to the island multiplies. Moreover, there are agreements with agencies in Mexico and in the Caribbean region to issue travels packages. However, it will be difficult to overcome the competition from those very tourist paradises that benefitted from Fidel Castro’s ban on tourism after 1959, when Cuba received lots of visitors.
In Havana, the experts who projected the decline of the Omicron surge for February and March, spoke this January 18 about controlling the pandemic, stating that it would reach a plateau and decrease in the coming weeks. Such projections could restore the confidence of potential tourists.
ARTÍCULO DE OPINIÓN
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