By Jay Amberg Bloomberg Lifestyles. Cigar News. Bloomberg. Tue, 06 Jun 2000, 1:16pm EDT
Havana, June 6 -- Tourism is fastest growing sector of the Cuban economy, outpacing sugar and tobacco in terms of generating hard currency, Cuban tourist officials said.
Recognizing the importance of tourist dollars to the island's economy, Cuba's ministry of tourism said that in the next 10 years Cuba will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in order to accommodate about 12 million visitors a year.
Deputy Minister of Tourism Eduardo Rodriguez de la Vega told Granma, Cuba's state newspaper, that this year the island hopes to attract about 2 million tourists, mostly from Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the U.K.
An estimated 153,000 U.S. citizens legally visited Cuba last year, while an estimated 28,000 visited the island in violation of the U.S. Trading With Enemy Act. While travel to Cuba (on a non- Cuban airline) isn't banned, a U.S. citizen without government approval violates the law when they
spend money on Cuban soil.
Journalists working for accredited new agencies, many academics and religious groups are exempt from the U.S. travel ban on Cuba.
Vega said that to date a majority of the development in Cuba's tourist sector has been self-financed by the Cuba government. He hopes that foreign investment will assume an increasingly important role.
Foreign investment is already helping to reshape Cuba's cigar industry. In December, European cigar giant Altadis SA purchased a 50 percent stake in Habanos SA, Cuba's global marketer and distributor for its cigars, for $500 million. The full implementation of the merger will be completed this
month.
Vega said Cuba is currently involved in 26 joint ventures with foreign companies that have a value of about $900 million.
Of the 26 companies, 24 are in the hotel business. These companies are expected to build about 13,320 new rooms, with 3,700 already constructed.
Vega said other foreign investment includes 50 hotels under management contract, totaling about 15,390 rooms.
The largest of the foreign hotel operators in Cuba, the Spanish hotel chain Sol Melia, has 14 hotels on the island with plans to build new hotels in Cuba's resort areas of Jardines del Rey (King's Garden) and Cayo Largo.
Cuba said if U.S. travel restrictions to the island were lifted an additional 5 million tourists would arrive in Cuba by direct airline flights, private yachts and cruise ships.
U.S. cruise operators are currently forbidden from including Cuba in their itineraries as a consequence of the U.S. trade embargo.
Vega said Cuba would welcome the influx of U.S. tourists, though the construction of gambling rooms and casinos, a popular Cuban attraction in the 1950s, wouldn't be permitted.
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