Cuban tourism and its future challenges

By Lenier González Mederos

HAVANA – The emblematic beach at Varadero, Cuba’s premier resort, hosted the 33rd International Tourism Fair (FitCuba2013) May 7 to 11. The grand event, at the Plaza América Convention Center, featured Brazil as its guest country and invited representatives from 53 countries to its 40 display stands.

Present were tour operators, airline officials, and more than 100 journalists and tourism specialists, among them several tourism ministers. The presence of Brazil’s Tourism Minister Gastão Vieira should be highlighted.

The event, more than just a routine annual event, has become a gauge that allows us to predict the future of Cuba’s tourism sector, successfully managed during the 1990s after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the arrival of the Special Period.

Cuba’s tourism sector, described for many years as “the engine of our economy,” has had its ups and down in the past decade. Although the arrival figures have not dropped, despite the economic crisis that affects some of our principal source markets and has negatively affected Caribbean destinations, they have not grown above 3 million visitors. Nor has an adequate quality/price relationship been achieved.

To reverse this trend, for several years now, the authorities have implemented a strategy that seeks to turn Cuba into an integral destination in the Caribbean. The diversification and application of dissimilar modalities of specialized tourism appear to constitute an important priority for Cuba. It goes beyond the traditional offer of sun and surf and brings in nature, culture and professional gatherings.

The backdrop for this setting is the economic reform announced and implemented by the government of President Raúl Castro.

In this context we find the planned construction of several golf courses, in joint ventures with foreign companies; the modification of laws that regulate the purchase and lease of property around the golf courses, the access to Cuban citizens to national tourism services, and the re-launching of the private-services sector.

Also the possibility that agricultural supply companies can deal directly with hotels and make million-dollar investments in hotels nationwide, with an emphasis on the keys north of Villa Clara and yacht marinas along Cuba’s northern coast. All this could place Cuba in a qualitatively different position in the context of the Caribbean.

Manuel Marrero Cruz, Cuba’s Tourism Minister, offered some clues about the subject in the speech with which he inaugurated FitCuba2013.

By 2020, Cuba will substantially increase its capacity for lodging and will have more than 85,000 rooms available, Marrero said. Last year, he said, Cuba welcomed more than 2,838,000 vacationers and earned more than US$2.6 million. Right now, Cuba has more than 60,000 hotel rooms; 65 percent of the hotels are 4 star- and 5 star-rated.

Marrero announced major investments in a process to renovate, expand and build hotels throughout the island, as well as to increase the number of hotel rooms.

We should add that, during 2012, 1.47 million Cubans stayed at hotels or bought vacation plans or other tourism services. In 2011, that number was 1.32 million. In-country tourism produced revenues of $124 million, an increase of 5.5 percent over the previous year.

These figures reveal the growing weight of tourism in Cuba’s economy and foretell its tremendous potential for the future. Nevertheless, if creative steps are not taken in the implementation of major structural changes, tourism could remain below its true potential.

One challenge that could be met easily is building links between tourism and the nascent sector of private services. Such a policy should go beyond the ability of Cuban farmers to supply food directly to hotels; it should totally integrate the private recreational, gastronomical and lodging services being created by the economic reform with the State and joint-venture sector that organizes tourism services.

Another project would be to create synergy between the tourist enclaves, such as the resorts in northern Holguín province, and the surrounding communities, to integrate them into productive chains that will benefit the popular sectors.

An unavoidable imperative is to dismantle the monopolistic attitude exemplified by the fact that the Palmares Group used to be almost the only organization that could provide food services in all of Cuba. This is a challenge related to the need to elevate the standards of quality in service, so that we can entice more tourists to return in numbers greater than at present.

In the Caribbean, Cuba competes with destinations such as Cancun (Mexico) and the Dominican Republic, to mention only two alternatives. Both those destinations have refined their portfolios and invested large sums to develop their communications, transport and tourism infrastructures. More important, they have become points of reference for the world’s sources of tourists.

Canada continues to head the list of countries that send tourists to Cuba. Any real chance of making Cuba the tourism heart of the Caribbean depends on a geopolitical variable: the possibility of rebuilding our relations with the United States. This is the Gordian Knot that has become the axis of the issue in Cuba.

It is a political endeavor that must be dealt with sooner than later, notwithstanding the complexities inherent to a historic dispute that goes beyond the 1959 Revolution and involves the legitimate aspirations of Cuban nationalism for more than a century. It’s imperative that we think about the future creatively and prepare for it. It may be our greatest challenge of all. Tourism, too, must meet it.

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