Zoom in

Zoom in

Zoom in

Zoom in

In the face of the slumping numbers of foreign visitors to Cuba in the first half of the year, the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) is working hard to buttress its product and reach out to other markets come November.

“The high-peak season is going to revert to this trend. August ended with a 3.7 percent increase from the figures chalked up the same month last year. We’ll wrap up 2013 with an uptick in the number of tourist arrivals as compared to previous seasons,” MINTUR marketing chief Jose Manuel Bisbe York said in a press conference.

 Revamping the hotel room stock has been one of the top priorities. That explains why a group of hotel facilities have opened, including the Meliá Marina Varadero (423 guestrooms and 122 apartments), Eurostar Santa Maria (846 guestrooms), Pestana Cayo Coco (468 guestrooms) and the Royal Floor at the Paradisus Princesa del Mar (168 guestrooms).

Furthermore, the enhancement of the Blau Costa Verde (400 guestrooms) concluded, the REX in Santiago de Cuba was reopened and as many as 3,000 rooms all across the country will get a new lease on life, especially in Villa Cojimar, in Cayo Levisa and Villa Coral, in Cayo Largo. In the same breath, the emblematic Capri Hotel in the island nation’s capital will reopen this coming season following lengthy all-out refurbishment.

 The labeling process of hotel guarantees a dramatic upgrade in terms of service quality for the upcoming season. With that same mindset, mechanisms aimed at  clinching different productive forms that secure  supplies of fruits and vegetables in the lodgings are being reinforced.

 There are also efforts underway for better efficiency in medical tourism, nature travel, academic trips  and for a number of programs of historic-heritage and cultural tours. “A year-round work of prognosis and selection of the best products provided by self-employed workers has been carried out in a bid to deliver a larger array of services, including accommodations, tour programming and gastronomy,” Mr.

Bisbe York went on to say.

 Stepped-up cruise operations will definitely make a difference during this winter season. Good cases in point are the arrivals of vessels run by Cuba Cruise (Canada, 1,200 passengers), Variety Panorama (Greece, 49 passengers), Star Clipper (Germany, 170 passengers) and Thomson Dreams (UK, 1,700 passengers), and the resume of the Semester at Sea (U.S., 836 passengers).

 The remodeling of Terminal 3 at the Jose Marti International Airport, with over $10 million worth of investments, will allow for better passenger assistance, more rooms for aircraft and the streamlining of all operating systems. The stock of tourist transportation –both buses and car rentals- will ramp up in line with the operational needs. At the same time, miles and miles of roads are being repaved as power grids are being buried underground, and water supplies and sewerage systems all across the island nation’s top travel destinations are being repaired.

 After receiving little more than 2.8 million international visitors last year, Cuba is making plans to crack the 3-milliontourist plateau in 2013.