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THE PERCEPTION OF TODAY'S TOURIST IS INFLUENCED BY THE EXISTENCE OF UPSCALE HOTELS DESIGNED FOR MORE DEMANDING AND SEASONED TRAVELERS WITH DEEP POCKETS

In the face of these times' reality, we should accept the fact that many conceptions that have been wielded as paradigms for years are now being questioned, thus making us come up with a new outline that's more in sync with the current situation.
The piecemeal advance of travel tied up to several motivations moves on strongly and undoubtedly. The tremendous headway made by new technologies -telecommunications, new hotel builds- coupled with the streamlining of transoceanic travel, both airborne and maritime, have prompted the mighty uprising of travel meta-searchers , online travel agencies (OTAs) and hotel companies with brands of worldwide outreach. Therefore, their influence on the distribution chain block ratchets up little by little thanks to the possibility of negotiating better contents, concepts and offer conditions.
With the view of customizing offers to the utmost in mind, social media deliver an opportunity to meet the customers, know their preferences and needs, their motivations and favorite activities, in an effort to come up with a tailor-made product. Thus, the customization of the customer's travel experience is and will be the key to making hotels far more competitive.
In this new scenario, the so-called urban tourism is no doubt one of the niches in the travel market that sports the biggest growth of all. Over the past five years, the number of city-bound international travelers ramped up 82 percent, according to ITB Berlin. Therefore, that market share now accounts for a quarter of all world tourism.
Hassle-free airlift, the fragmentation of vacations, the expansion of lodging offers -both el cheapo and fancy- as well as the emergence of new travel attractions in the big cities are just some of the causes that explain away the growth of urban tourism. Today, what really defines contemporary cities and makes them truly luring is a multitude of offers that combines authenticity and modernity in the traveler's perception. These trends are realized in the construction of high-end hotels designed for more demanding and seasoned travelers with deep pockets.
In this sense, Havana -as a capital- takes on the need to deluxe five-star lodgings to its offer, cut out for a segment of tourists encouraged by culture, history and heritage, yet highly rigorous with their accommodations based on their own benchmarks and intimacy.
The new architectural-hotel designs are marked by large glass window panes and metal structures as the basic expressive underpinnings that favor views and the exchange with the outer space, thus pointing to hotels with new stylistic designs. The assessment of materials and the proper use of technical qualities combine to propose a modern and ambitious image with rock-solid conceptual elements.
Each and every hotel development rubs elbows with the precedent architecture, in keeping with the urbanization they are located in -Colonial Havana, Vedado, Miramar- and the new stylistic paradigms international tourism is ruled by, whose quality requirements and parameters are construed in the use of cutting-edge technology, conveniences, trade dresses and value-added services, things that certainly pave the way for qualitative conceptual twists and styles in countless building projects on and off the drawing board. That's what the great challenge for the development of Havana's tourism sector in the fifth centennial of its foundation is actually all about.

Table  1. ACCOMMODATION CAPACITY IN HAVANA (2019)

Total of existing rooms.......12 608
5 stars..............................2 615
4 stars..............................3 100
3 stars..............................3 264
2 stars and 1 star...............3 629

Table  2. UPSCALE HOTELS IN HAVANA

Deluxe five-star hotels (2020)    Rooms
Hotel Manzana Kempinski..........246
Hotel Iberostar Grand Packard....321
Hotel Sofitel Paseo del Prado.....250
Gran Hotel................................150
Hotel Corona.............................120
Total.........................................1 087