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18/05/07 - Cuba Aiming
for Major Tourism Boost |
Cuba says it will
spend about $185 million to upgrade more than 200 resorts, golf courses,
marinas and other facilities in a bid to reverse a dip in tourism to the
island.
The government has said the number of visitors to island dropped by about
100,000 last year to 2.2 million, hitting the communist nation's leading
source of income. Washington's 45-year-old trade embargo prohibits American
tourists from coming to Cuba and chokes off most trade between the
countries.
Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero announced the development plan last week at
a tourism fair that was closed to the international press. The plan detailed
this week in Opciones, a state-run newspaper for foreign investors, will run
through 2010 and seeks to make Cuba more competitive.
Some $162 million will be used to upgrade non-hotel facilities, such as golf
courses, yacht clubs and theme parks. Other funds will be used to build 50
boutique inns around the country in addition to 10 already under
construction and to improve the country's outdated highways, Marrero said.
Opciones did not say how many tourists have visited Cuba so far this year,
but quoted Marrero as saying that ''in 2007, for the fourth consecutive
year, the number will be greater than 2 million visitors.''
Many international visitors complain that Cuba is excessively expensive,
especially because of a tax on required currency exchanges.
Also at the fair, aviation officials announced plans to improve airports in
Havana and four other cities. Heriberto Prieto, first vice president of
Cuba's Civil Aviation Institute, said nearly a dozen new planes were being
added to the island's passenger fleet.
Tourism, which generates some $2 billion annually in Cuba, became a major
source of income in the 1990s following the Soviet Union's collapse and the
loss of critical aid and trade.
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