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Cuba
tries to bring back tourism glory days
By Mike Williams. The
Palm Beach Post, June 5, 2007.
Penati's impressions would be music to
the ears of Cuban tourism officials, who
are scrambling to broaden the island's tourism
offerings and bolster one of the communist
nation's chief sources of revenue. Government
officials recently announced a plan to invest
about $185 million during the next few years
to upgrade more than 200 tourism facilities,
from golf courses and marinas to hotels
and inns.
The move is part of an effort to remain
competitive in the often cutthroat Caribbean
tourism market. It also comes as Cuban officials
acknowledged a small but worrisome dip in
tourist visits, which fell by about 100,000
last year to an annual rate of 2.2 million.
This year, Cuba is on track to top 2 million
visitors again, according to a recent article
in Opciones, a government-run newspaper
for foreign investors. Although foreign
press reports have cited further declines
in Cuban tourism this year, the article
gave no figures for 2007, and tourism officials
were not available for interviews.
Known in the 1940s and 1950s for its casinos
and flashy tropical floor shows, Cuba largely
ignored tourism after Fidel Castro's 1959
revolution and the country's transformation
into a Marxist state.
But with the collapse of the Soviet Union
in the early 1990s and the loss of about
$6 billion in annual Soviet subsidies, Cuba
turned to tourism again as its best option
for salvaging a foundering economy.
Partnering with foreign firms, chiefly
from Europe and Canada, Cuba invested heavily
in refurbishing its aging hotels and beach
resorts, and tourism numbers climbed dramatically.
Today the sector accounts for about $2 billion
in yearly revenues, making it one of the
top earners in the country of about 11.4
million people.
Cuba has more than 40,000 hotel rooms,
up from about 12,000 in the early 1990s.
Employment in the tourism sector is about
300,000.
American firms have been shut out from
participating in Cuba's tourism revival
by the four-decade-old embargo that prohibits
most U.S. companies from doing business
on the island. Despite the embargo, Americans
were frequent visitors to Cuba in the 1990s,
as the Clinton administration encouraged
cultural and educational exchanges.
The Bush administration severely curtailed
those visits, in response to Cuban exiles'
arguments that Americans spending money
in Cuba serve only to prop up Castro's heavy-handed
communist regime.
Although no recent estimates are available,
the number of Americans visiting Cuba dropped
from about 86,000 in 2003 to 51,000 in 2004.
Bush also tightened the rules on visits
to the island by Cuban-American families,
and those numbers have dropped from about
100,000 in 2004 to about 30,000 a year,
according to Cuban press reports. Although
Cuban-Americans typically visit the island
to spend time with family and not for traditional
vacations, they have been an important source
of tourism revenue.
Topping the list of Cuba's foreign visitors
are Canadians, who accounted for about 600,000
visitors last year, followed by Britain,
with about 211,000.
Cuban officials cite higher airfares as
a reason for the recent decline, along with
the Bush administration's tightening of
the embargo, which prompted the drop in
visits by Cuban-Americans.
Foreign press reports also cite high prices
compared with a few years ago, when Cuba
was struggling to gain its footing in the
Caribbean market, along with a recent currency
revaluation and the imposition of a 20 percent
tax for exchanging U.S. dollars to Cuban
convertible pesos, the currency tourists
are required to use on the island.
Some reports also mentioned complaints
of foreign visitors about poor service and
bland food at some Cuban resorts.
With competition intense from neighboring
resorts in the Dominican Republic and Cancun,
Mexico, Cuban officials seem determined
to reverse the recent slide.
The upgrade plans include spending about
$160 million on facilities such as golf
courses, marinas and small theme parks.
The rest will go to improve highways and
build 50 boutique hotels, which are smaller
inns that cater to visitors who want an
alternative to lavish luxury hotels.
Cuban officials also announced plans to
improve the country's major airport in Havana
and four smaller airports on other parts
of the island.
Work also continues on the restoration
of Old Havana, one of the hemisphere's most
picturesque colonial cities and a key attraction
for foreign visitors. The restoration, which
is not covered under the recently announced
initiative, has led to rebuilding crumbling
historic landmarks on several plazas in
the old city and is expanding steadily along
several major arteries.
"It's gorgeous," said Alan Rassaby,
an Australian who visited recently. "You
walk down the streets and feel like you
are in another world. I hope if they do
eventually open up to Americans, it won't
all be ruined by fast-food restaurants."
Copyright © 2007, The Palm Beach Post.
All rights reserved.
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