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Cuba
to Spend $185 Million for Tourism
Yahoo!
News. By Andrea Rodriguez, Associated
Press Writer. May 17, 2007.
Cuba to Spend $185 Million
to Reverse Setbacks in Tourism, Upgrade
Resorts, Golf Courses
HAVANA (AP) -- Cuba says it will spend
about $185 million to upgrade more than
200 resorts, golf courses, marinas and other
facilities in a bid to reverse a dip in
tourism to the island.
The government has said the number of visitors
to island dropped by about 100,000 last
year to 2.2 million, hitting the communist
nation's leading source of income. Washington's
45-year-old trade embargo prohibits American
tourists from coming to Cuba and chokes
off most trade between the countries.
Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero announced
the development plan last week at a tourism
fair that was closed to the international
press. The plan detailed this week in Opciones,
a state-run newspaper for foreign investors,
will run through 2010 and seeks to make
Cuba more competitive.
Some $162 million will be used to upgrade
non-hotel facilities, such as golf courses,
yacht clubs and theme parks. Other funds
will be used to build 50 boutique inns around
the country in addition to 10 already under
construction and to improve the country's
outdated highways, Marrero said.
Opciones did not say how many tourists
have visited Cuba so far this year, but
quoted Marrero as saying that "in 2007,
for the fourth consecutive year, the number
will be greater than 2 million visitors."
Many international visitors complain that
Cuba is excessively expensive, especially
because of a tax on required currency exchanges.
Also at the fair, aviation officials announced
plans to improve airports in Havana and
four other cities. Heriberto Prieto, first
vice president of Cuba's Civil Aviation
Institute, said nearly a dozen new planes
were being added to the island's passenger
fleet.
Tourism, which generates some $2 billion
annually in Cuba, became a major source
of income in the 1990s following the Soviet
Union's collapse and the loss of critical
aid and trade.
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