Published on : Tuesday, July 9, 2019
Cuba continues to develop its tourism sector in spite of new White House measures for preventing Americans from spending their dollars in the sunny Caribbean island nation.
The biggest blow to Cuba and to Americans interested to visit the country came in early June, when Washington banned U.S. cruise ships and recreational vessels from sailing to Cuban ports.
The abrupt decision brought cancellation of some 800,000 reservations, according to the Cruise Lines International Association, the largest cruise industry trade group in the world.
“After the withdrawal of U.S. cruise companies that visited Cuban ports, we looked for new alternatives,” said Jose R. Daniel Alonso, the Tourism Ministry’s director of development.
Cuba’s tourism industry has long thrived on international visitors from Canada and Europe, whose numbers are increasing each year. With these markets in mind, Cuba is aiming to build 8,500 new hotel rooms around the country in the next few years.
Havana will be celebrating its 500th anniversary celebrations in November, and thus, new hotels will be inaugurated, including the Paseo del Prado, and others are being renovated, such as the Havana Riviera and Tryp Habana Libre.
Havana has about 12,545 rooms in total, or 17.3 percent of the country’s hotel capacity, and is the most visited city on the island nation, hosting almost half of all tourists visiting Cuba each year. However, other parts of the country are also witnessing tourism growth, especially, Matanzas province and its Varadero beach resort, which is also known as Blue Beach featuring 21,841 rooms.
Southern Matanzas is known for its ecotourism, and Zapata Swamp, the largest wetland in the Caribbean and a venue of the international nature tourism expo TURNAT 2019 to be held in September.
In south-central Cuba, the cities of Cienfuegos and Trinidad will see new hotel openings. In Santiago de Cuba, the nation’s second-largest city, two hotels will open this year, and more are expected to launch in 2020.
Tourism is Cuba’s second largest source of foreign revenue, bringing in over 3 billion U.S. dollars last year.