Cuba cedes tourism management of a paradisiacal key to Canadian group

Cuban authorities transferred the operation of all lodging centers and other extra-tourist activities on Cayo Largo del Sur, a paradisiacal island in the south of the country, to the Canadian hotel group Blue Diamond, according to an executive of the company.

“For us, it is very important because as a chain, we are going to take over the key in an integral way at the level of exploitation, at the level of commercialization, not only the 11 hotel products we have, which are seven villas and four hotels, but also we are going to take charge of the extra-hotel management” of commercial areas on beaches, Rafael Villanueva, commercial director of Blue Diamond Cuba, told state television.

In early July, the new runway of the Vilo Acuña International Airport was inaugurated in this key, as well as the rehabilitation of the control tower and other facilities for the relaunching of this 37.5-square-kilometer Caribbean resort, with a natural breeding ground for several species of turtles.

New flights from Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa, and Halifax will start operating in the coming months.

The executive explained that Italian tourists are expected to start arriving in October, and in November, the arrival of Canadians, the largest group of travelers who like to vacation in Cuba.

The hotel group, which now has 10,900 rooms in Cuba, has gained ground in the island’s tourism sector, where the Spanish group Meliá is in charge of the largest number of hotels (40).

In August, Blue Diamond will also take control of the luxurious Paseo del Prado hotel, inaugurated shortly before the pandemic on the central Prado Avenue in the Cuban capital, which will become Royalton Habana.

“It’s going to be the flagship in the capital,” Villanueva said, stressing the importance of this operation for being Royalton’s “biggest brand” internationally.

According to official figures, tourism, the main engine of the island’s economy, plummeted from just over one million international visitors in 2020 to 356,470 in 2021.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, tourist arrivals reached 4.1 million in 2018. Of this total, more than one million were Canadians.

For 2022, authorities have forecast the arrival of 2 million international visitors. Up to May, 564,847 travelers arrived.

With information from AFP

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