TTC Online #214 - World Travel Market (WTM) (English Edition)

create the bases for a cultural tourism that transmits the cen-turies-old ties between these na-tions. 8

Today, British tourism is con-sidered among Cuba and the Ca-ribbean’s principal tourist mar-kets. The tourist offer should

English Presence in the Caribbean: a History ImprintInvestment Projections in the Cays North of Cuba 14Trinidad and Tobago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Independence 16English-Speaking Caribbean Still Confident of Its Beaches 18

Inter-American Tourism and Multidestination TourismLasT year the WTo registered 982 million in-ternational tourists, who spent 1.03 billion dol-lars: 1,050 dollars per tourist. of these, Latin america and the Caribbean received 78 mil-lion tourists and 66 billion dollars in tourist income: 846 dollars per tourist.

What’s happening with this region? It is at a semi-standstill: in 2005 it received 10% of the world tourist f low and 9% of the tourist income; it dropped in 2011 when it received 8% of the international tourists and 6% of the income. 6

ists in the next five years, which implies doubling the number of arrivals. The inter-view given to TTC by Eng. Luis Maldonado, Counselor of the dominican Republic Em-bassy in Cuba, is about the strong invest-ment process that accompanies this aim. 4

Dominican Republic Invests to Double Tourist Arrivals. The dominican Republic received 3.2 million visitors from January to august of this year –around +7% than the same period in 2011. This is a good premise for its project to reach the 10 million tour-

ThE WTM will have a varied representation of Cuban entities and their commercial partners… Ministry of Tourism, Gran Caribe, Gavio ta, Cubanacán Group, Islazul, habaguanex, san Cristóbal Travel agency, Cubanacán Travel agency, Cubatur, sandals, Iberostar, superClu-bs and Meliá hotels International. 2

Cuba’s stand at WTM 2011. Photo: TTC.

Cuba at WTM

Performance and trends of inter-national tourism, given at the FIT-Cuba 2012 International Tourism Fair. 2

resident population, Carlos Vogel-er, regional director for the amer-icas of the World Tourism orga-nization, estimated in his lecture

ThE CaRIBBEan will reach the 30 million international tourists in 2030, and will be the fourth world subregion in arrivals per

Caribbean to Reach 30 Million Tourists in 2030

Poste italiane Spa - Sped. in Abb. Post. D.L. 353/2003 Conv. in L. 27/02/2004, no. 46 Art. 1 comma 1, DCB Milano - Prezzo per copia EURO 0,25

Year XII • No. 214 • November 2012 • Europe Edition • www.traveltradecaribbean.com • ISSN 1724 - 5370

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rent operations with the market’s principal tour operators –Thomas Cook, TUI UK, Virgin holidays, The holiday Place; increasing the summer air operations to Jardines del Rey, holguín and the cays of Villa Clara; introducing and posi-tioning Cuba in the programming of the market’s cruise ships; and positioning the scuba diving, cy-clotourism, nature, events and in-centives product.

during the last year, Cuba re-ceived 175,822 tourists from the United Kingdom, 0.8% more than the previous year, when 174,343 had been received. In the January-august period, the latest available

official figures by the national office of statistics and Information at the close of this edition revealed that 103,380 British visitors had arrived on the island. ■

ThE UnITEd Kingdom is still one of the principal issuers for the Cuba tourist destination, ranking in second place.

The favorite destinations of British visitors are: Varadero, holguín, Jardines del Rey, the cays of Villa Clara and havana. They consume mainly, by or-der of preference, the following tourist products: sun and beach, combinations, circuits, weddings and honeymoons, scuba diving and other variants of specialized tourism.

The principal objectives of the tourist strategy Cuba has drawn up with respect to this market are increasing the number of visitors and diversify-ing the market segments, for which the following ac-tions are taken into account: consolidating the cur-

Cuba at WTM

Cuba’s stand at WTM 2011. Photo: TTC.

Country Arrivals Income (million $)

1 Dominican Republic 4,306,000 4,209,000

2 Puerto Rico 3,679,000 3,598,000

3 Cuba 2,688,000 2,187,000

4 Jamaica 1,952,000 2,001,000

5 Bahamas 1,344,000 2,059,000

6 Aruba 871,000 1,251,000

7 Barbados 568,000 1,052,000Source: World Tourism Organization.

INTERNATIoNAl TouRISM CARIbbEAN 2011

of the world total), 73.7% of them concentrated in seven destina-tions; and registered an income of $24.3 billion (+4.6%).

Vogeler referred to the “tour-ist development of the small is-land states, which obviously in-clude those of the Caribbean. We will analyze a series of factors that have a specific incidence in the way in which they have to work tourism, since they have some traits that are very different from those of other competitors.”

Based on the premises of the high dependence on the north american and European mar-kets, and the fact that some Ca-ribbean destinations are begin-ning to notice more the emerging Latin american markets, some of the key elements for the Carib-bean’s market are: innovation of products through a multidesti-nation platform; improvements in the air interconnection in the area; strengthening of the posi-tion of the Caribbean brand as a unique destination; intensifi-cation of the association of the public and private sectors; and establishment of integrated tour-ist policies that facilitate intrare-gional travel. ■

The americas attracted 16% of the world arrivals and close to 20% of the total income. The in-sular Caribbean, in particular, received 21 million arrivals (2.1%

It is estimated that “tourism constitutes 5% of the world GdP, directly, and 9% indirect-

ly…it generates from 6% to 7% of direct or indirect jobs in the world (1 out of each 12 jobs), and is a very important export activity since it represents 30% on a global level of export of services,” Vogeler af-firmed.

In 2011, world tourism reached 990 million arrivals (+4.6%), just in terms of overnight stays, and passed the barrier of a trillion dol-lars in income for world tourist destinations (1.03 trillion).

Caribbean to Reach 30 Million Tourists in 2030

Carlos Vogeler, regional director for the Americas of the World Tourism organiza-

tion. Photo: TTC.


Samaná is a destination with lots of potential, plenty of famous places and virginal areas.

the world’s 10 best, although it is still a virgin area, with a great deal of potentials, since it lacks tourist development in terms of rooms and facilities.”

Because of its attractions, more thought is being given to ecotour-ism in Barahona. some of the out-standing places are the Enriquillo Lake, one of the Caribbean’s larg-est; the forests of the sierra de Bahoruco, several rivers and the Bahía las aguilas beach, “one of the most beautiful in the country, where we have great expectations and there are debates on whether construction is carried out out-side the area to protect the envi-ronment. Important investments have been made like the María Montez airport, but this has to be accompanied by the incorpora-

tion of new rooms, an aspect that will have to be intensified.”Regarding the means of maritime transportation, Maldonado said:

“almost all those destinations have marinas with a high affluence of private yachts, fundamentally in Bávaro-Punta Cana, Casa de Campo and even Boca Chica, where the nautical club close to santo domingo with the biggest activity is located, which is part of the infrastructure created to attract certain segments of tourism, a very wise move.”

The dominican Republic receives cruise ships through three termi-nals; samaná, where there was a considerable investment and, because of its dynamism, has increased the docking frequencies; Puerto Plata, which has decreased as a consequence of what I previously explained; and in the Port of santo domingo, part of which will be turned into the future sans souci Tourist Port, with its totally changed vocation, since it will be limited to the reception of cruise ships to thus increase the fre-quencies and offer other tourist services. This investment is made by the country’s principal private group, which has links with the tourist sector.

“Broadly speaking, these are the perspectives of the dominican tourist destinations. some things will have to be improved, but the hope of doubling the number of tourists depends a great deal on the invest-ments and the constant promotion, as has been done in recent years, whose results are already being seen in the increase of arrivals. In ad-dition, we have worked to create the country image, all of which has helped to position the country as one of the principal tourist destina-tions of the Caribbean.

“We consider that more than a competition between the region’s des-tinations what we have to do is a united work to offer the multidestina-tion option. Thus, whoever comes to the dominican Republic could also visit Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica or other Caribbean islands,” Mr. Maldonado concluded. ■

Eng. luis Maldonado, Counselor of the

Dominican Republic Embassy in Cuba.

To give an overview of the works in execution in each of the domini-can Republic’s tourist destinations to support the 10 million arriv-als, Mr. Maldonado began by referring to the modern recreation

park of the Bávaro-Punta Cana region, the Extreme Park –valued at 180 million Usd–, which would be the largest park of its kind in Latin america, whose foundation stone was laid by the president of the Ca-ribbean nation, danilo Medina.

“In the tourist destination of Boca Chica-Juan dolio…,” he noted, “a project is being developed that is very linked to the tourist activity, for the expansion of rooms in apartments –towers built facing the seashore–, for residential homes as well as for leisure. In any case, those who buy them can use all the services offered in the area.” For this purpose, even areas where there currently exist old tourist installations will be used. Puerto Plata, one of the traditional destinations, was the most dynamic in the 1980s-early 1990s, but in recent years its development has been slow.

“The Bávaro-Punta Cana pole emerged subsequently,” the counselor explains, “the country’s principal destination, where the greatest develop-ment has taken place in the tourist sector and which has the largest amount of rooms and service offers and the airport with the largest operational volume, Punta Cana (even more than that of santo domingo, Las améri-cas), a sign of the flow of passengers that come and go [more than half of the visitors arrived from January to august 2012 through this air termi-nal]. The whole world has reference about Punta Cana; in the area’s dif-ferent hotel complexes we also have excellent golf courses, designed by the sector’s principal specialists, where prominent dominican sports and arts figures carry out their annual events of this sport, which have an impor-tant repercussion in the golf world, since big international stars participate in them attracted, among other things, by the quality of the golf courses.

“To the east of the country, where there are many attractions, other in-vestments are being made in areas outside Bavaro, like those of Venezue-lan businessman Gustavo Cisneros, who is carrying out a project; of Julio Iglesias and oscar de la Renta. That area also features the Casa de Campo resort, included for 20 years on the list of the world’s 100 principal resorts.

“samaná is a destination with a lot of potential, which should have been the first; investments were made in the early 1970s but road works were not executed until 8-10 years ago, which reduced the santo do-mingo-samaná journey from 4 to 1½ hours. Investments were also made in the infrastructure and in an airport that has given it some dy-namism. The area will not have such a mass flow of tourists as Punta Cana, since the hotels have less density, but they are presently receiving a considerable affluence. In samaná there are important places like Las Terrenas, Las Galeras or Playa Rincón –the latter considered among

Dominican Republic Invests to Double Tourist Arrivals


Subregion Arrivals 2005 (M) Arrivals 2011 (M) Growth rate

Mexico 22 22 0,0%

Caribbean 19 21 1,7%

Central America 6 8 5,0%

South America 18 26 6,0%

destination left only four airlines functioning (Cubana, aeroflot, Csa and Iberia). This was one of the reasons why international tourism in Cuba disappeared during the 1960s.

MulTIDESTINATIoN TouRISM: THE uNfulfIllED PRoMISEMultidestination tourism is probably an

unfulfilled promise. developing it was logical. But its results have been meager in the ameri-cas. Why?

▶ Political will and business interest is re-quired to foment it. Thousands of hours have been spent in conferences, workshops and conventions, where the politicians and those responsible for the tourist adminis-trations in Latin america and the Caribbe-an have invested time and effort, but little has been achieved.

▶ The tour operators on which this region de-pends are not interested in the complexities inherent to the implementation of the mul-tidestination modality.

▶ our travel agencies and tour operators pre-fer the large masses of tourists traveling to all-Inclusive sun and Beach resorts than attending to small groups that come in spe-cial conditions from a destination and that in a few days will travel to another.

▶ The boom in the last 20 years in cruise ships is a strong competition for tourism of mul-tidestination stays since, although limited, the cruise passenger is a tourist who in a week visits four to five destinations.

▶ While the national leaders of the tourist ad-ministrations defend multidestination, oth-er important figures of their governments who would have to authorize reduction in taxes and in the cost of tickets, the subsidiz-ing of the first stage of flights between the destinations or simply getting a visa are not of the same opinion. ■

In the last six-year period, south america increased at an annual rate of 6% in arrivals; it was the subregion that registered the high-est growth in tourist income, at an annual rate of 11%. of the 21 million foreign visitors who increased arrivals in Latin america and the Caribbean in 2005-2011, south america is re-sponsible for 11 million of them.

IS THERE AN INTER-AMERICAN TouRISM?yes, but it is weak. It should be stronger, but

there are weak points that don’t help. In a great deal of the countries international tourism is built on the binomial tour operators of devel-oped countries + national travel agencies and tour operators. The U.s., Canadian and Euro-pean tour operators are interested in sending their tourists to our destinations and make the maximum of profits. The Latin american and Caribbean tour operators are few, weak and professionally not very efficient. The rest of the infrastructure does not complement them.

air connections between the Caribbean is-lands are very deficient. The U.s. airlines are decisive. If american airlines decides to sus-pend its flights to one of these islands, it will probably liquidate international tourism in this destination. Cuba has sufficient experi-ence to tell about when the economic blockade and the ban on travel by U.s. citizens to this

u.S. airlines are a key factor in the connection between

Caribbean islands with international tourism.

■■ Dr.■Miguel■Alejandro■Figueras■Professor of the University of Havana. Cuban National Prize for Economy in 2007

When dividing the region into four large subregions, we see that they move dif-ferently, two at a standstill or semi-

standstill, Mexico and the Caribbean, and two with a high dynamics, Central america and south america.

Mexican tourism is at a standstill. how-ever, its southern state of Quintana Roo, with its marvelous Riviera Maya and its diversi-fied Cancun, has a high growth rate. The sec-ond airport in terms of passenger traffic, the first in international passengers operates there and receives more than 30% of Mexico’s tour-ist income. Therefore, there must have been a backward step in the arrivals of international tourists during the last six-year period in other Mexican regions. Cancun was the star in the 1970s; the dominican Republic in the 1980s; Cuba in the 1990s; and the Riviera Maya has been so in the first decade of this century.

From where do the visitors to the insular Caribbean come? around half of them from the United states, about 20% from Europe, a bit less from the Caribbean and the rest of ameri-ca and around 10% from Canada. If we add the Mexican Caribbean to the insular Caribbean, the fact stands out that the spanish Caribbean (Quintana Roo, dominican Republic and Cu-ba) has been the shining star, a dynamic part since the mid 1980s to date. a key factor was the spanish hotel chains, which have invested a great deal of money and, above all, sounded off with a system of sun and Beach all-Inclu-sive hotels.

In the first decade of this century, inter-national tourism to Central america grew at rates that surpassed three and four fold those of the Caribbean. It cannot be forgotten that in this subregion the bases for a very diversi-fied product can be easily combined: splendor-ous nature, mystical and historic Mayan ruins, beautiful beaches, abundant fishing, marvel-ous sites for scuba diving and good connec-tions with many airlines, among them Copa and Taca. If Central america were to continue growing at the rate of the last 10 years, in the second decade of the 21st century it will tend to equal the insular Caribbean in the reception of international tourists.

The southern state of Quintana Roo,

with its marvelous Riviera Maya,

has a high growth rate.

Inter-American Tourism and Multidestination Tourism

7TRAVEL TRADE CARIBBEAN • YEAR XII • NO. 214 • NOVEMBER 2012

ThE MExICan Caribbean con-tinues being one of European tourism’s favorite Mexican des-tinations, and because of this the conservation of its biodiversity has become a fundamental link in the development of that strip’s tourist sector, towards which they are making many efforts.

In fact, the Planning, Design and Sustainable Construction Guide for the Mexican Caribbe-an, whose principal objective is to orient investors on fundamental aspects that should be taken into account with respect to the natu-ral surroundings and regulations, has the aim of fomenting sustain-able and convenient practices in the planning and construction of tourist real estate developments on the coast of the state of Quin-tana Roo. This seeks to generate, on the one hand, certainty in the security and protection of the eco-nomic investment of the buildings and, on the other, the conserva-tion of the environment and the natural surroundings that charac-terize that region.

Mexico’s Riviera Maya, which expects to cater to some four mil-lion tourists in 2013, consistent with the opening of new domestic flights and the increase of interna-tional frequencies from London, Paris and Russia, according to of-ficial sources, is at the vanguard of the initiatives that guarantee the sustainable development of tour-ism in harmony with the environ-ment and its cultural heritage.

The Tourism Initiative of the Mesoamerican Reef, promoted by tourism services providers of the Riviera Maya, aims to mini-mize the negative impacts that the so-called leisure industry could generate on that reef system, the largest of the atlantic ocean and second worldwide –with a length of more than 643 km, it extends from the yucatan Peninsula, to the south of Mexico, passing by Belize and Guatemala up to honduras.

another aspect that has had wide media coverage has been the recognition by the Mexican Insti-tute of standardization and Certi-fication of the Riviera Maya’s ef-fort in the cleaning up of beaches, which allowed it to renovate its certification of Clean Beach for the next two years. In general, Quintana Roo is marking its ad-vance in the cleaning up of beach-es, basins, aquifers, lagoons and wetlands and in the preservation of the native ecology.

Meanwhile, the Cancun-Riv-iera Maya Clean Beaches Com-mittee has worked based on 10 strategic indicators regarding the coverage of sanitary sewer sys-tems, waste water treatment, ef-ficiency in the operation of treat-ment plants, the quality of the water of the beaches, recreational beaches with public toilets, man-agement of solid wastes, efficiency in public management, promotion of research, efficiency in the exe-cution of actions and certification of beaches. ■

Mexican Caribbean Champions Sustainable Tourism


old engraving that illustrates the capture of Havana

by the English in 1762.

over the post of Captain General and later his brother William. These governors effec-tively and perseveringly fought against the enormous administrative corruption that had characterized the spanish colonial au-thorities.

Meanwhile, by giving havana the freedom to trade, freeing it for a while from the span-ish commercial monopoly, made the natives see the wealth and possibilities of these lands. From there on the Cubans would fight to ob-tain from spain the necessary concessions.

It was England, according to illustrious Cu-ban historian Emilio Roig de Leuchsenring, which gave way to the economic and cultural flourishing that havana and all of Cuba en-joyed during the first years of the 19th century and at the same time contributed to the aware-ness of the independence struggles that char-acterized that century.

The English imprint in Cuba was perpet-uated with the introduction of the anglican Church using the san Francisco de asís Ba-silica as its principal temple. In the summer of 2001, 239 years after the English entered havana, the 14th Count of albemarle, Rufus Keppel, got married with anglican rites in the havana basilica to recall the first angli-can ceremony that was attended by his ances-tor the admiral, Lord Georges Keppel, Count of albemarle.

The year 2012 marks the 250th anniversary of the English presence in Cuba: the Taking of havana by the English. Today, British tourism is considered among Cuba and the Caribbean’s principal tourist markets. The tourist offer should create the bases for a cultural tourism that transmits the centuries-old ties between these nations. ■

This notable certainty was accentuated in Jamaica, Barbados, Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, saint Kitts-nevis, saint Lu-cia, saint Vincent and the Grenadines and antigua and Barbuda; in addition to Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos and the British Vir-gin Islands –the three latter still belong to the United Kingdom. The English imprint spread throughout the region, challenging the deca-dent spanish empire.

The largest of the antilles, the island of Cu-ba, did not take long in being influenced by the British. on June 6, 1762, a formidable na-vy squadron commanded by British admiral Pockock presented itself at the entrance to the fortified bay of havana. The Count of albe-marle, at the head of the troops, landed the fol-lowing day through the area of Bacuranao and Cojímar, and after 67 days of siege the English took over havana. The British occupation last-ed 11 months, which if they had perpetuated it would have changed the course of history.

In the 11 months of English domination, George Keppel, Count of albemarle, took

■■ Dr.■Jos■Luis■Perell■Doctor in Economic Sciences. Master in Tourism Management. Professor of the Faculty of Tourism, University of Havana. Consultant National Chamber of Tourism of Honduras (CANATURH) and International Center of Havana (CIH)

The realities of the peoples and nations of the Caribbean Basin are very different de-spite sharing common problems. The po-

litical, ethnic and cultural diversity of the re-gion of the Greater Caribbean has its origin with the arrival of Christopher Columbus on october 12, 1492 to the island of Guanahani, at that time named san salvador by its discov-erer, and today located on the Bahamas. The subsequent expeditions took place to Cuba and hispaniola, presently shared by the do-minican Republic and haiti. Their travels and discoveries continued in subsequent years, thus giving spain the biggest military and ter-ritorial power of its time.

These discoveries stirred up the interest of other European states, like England, and they gradually started establishing themselves in several Caribbean islands. already by the mid 17th century they had decided with great te-nacity to dismantle the spanish dominion in the Caribbean.

Later, with the consolidation of the Eng-lish monarchy, plus the new economic system implemented by France, spanish power began ceding autonomy and domination in the Ca-ribbean region. The British influence fostered an English-speaking island attitude, self-ex-cluding for centuries, which marked great dif-ferences with the spanish, French and dutch-speaking Caribbean.

English Presence in the Caribbean: a History Imprint

The San francisco de

Asís basilica served as

the principal temple of

the Anglican Church.


short trips, will also cross the isth-mus on route to the Caribbean and Central america. ships of the holland america Line, Royal Ca-ribbean Cruise Line, norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival Cruise Lines companies will use the ca-nal this season, according to Cas-tillo. ■

the Marketing Research and analysis office of the Panama Canal, indicated that the major-ity of the vessels that sail through the area cover more than 10-day journeys.

other smaller cruise ships like the national Geographic sea Lion and the Wind star, which make

WITh the passage to the atlantic of the ship Coral Princess, of the Princess Cruises Company, the Panama Canal opened its locks for the 2012-2013 season, when some 200 cruise ships are expect-ed to cross through this interoce-anic sea route.

Jaime Castillo, specialist with

Some 200 Cruise Ships to Cross the Panama Canal this Season

Jamaica: More Than Two Million Tourists Up to Date in 2012

FRoM January to august 2012, Jamaica received around 2.2 million tourists and an in-come of 1,480 million dollars, for a 3.4% increase as com-pared to the same period in 2010, Minister of Tourism Ed-mund Bartlett announced. The arrival of cruise ships in-creased 13.6% in the first eight months of the year. ■


The CTO, with headquarters in Barbados, comprises 32 mem-ber countries, including English, French, Spanish, and Dutch coun-tries and territories, as well as private sector allied members. These include the Caribbean Ho-tel Association, companies, orga-nizations, and persons providing products and services to the Ca-ribbean tourism industry.

The Caribbean Tourism Organiza-tion exists to increase significantly the inclusion of the Caribbean re-gion in the set of destinations being considered by travelers. Its mission is to create and manage the partner-ships necessary to increase the pur-chase of travel to and within the Ca-ribbean that results in sustainable economic and social benefits for its people.

da, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Gre-nada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Hai-ti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montser-rat, Nevis, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, St. Barthelemy, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, St. Martin, St. Vincent&the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad&Tobago, Turks&Caicos, US Virgin Islands, and Venezuela.

CARIBBEAN Tourism Organiza-tion joins International Council of Tourism Partners alliance as a destination member, according to a report of Travel Daily News International.

The representation of the Ca-ribbean Tourism Organization is vast and includes: Anguilla, Antigua&Barbuda, Aruba, Baha-mas, Barbados, Belize, Bermu-

Caribbean Tourism Organization joins International Council of Tourism Partners

dominican Republic, Trinidad and Toba-go and Bahamas, and on this occasion Gre-nada and Puerto Rico were able to join the much-longed for list.

If we compare the table of medals with the previous Beijing 2008 Games, the Caribbe-an countries surpassed their performance in medals and amount of nations included on the select list.

The number of gold medals was 13 as com-pared to the 10 won in the Chinese capital; in the silver medals they descended from 18 to nine; the same in the bronze, in which they achieved 14 after having won 15 in Beijing.

It is interesting that despite there being a quantitative descent in the number of medals,

36 in London and 43 in China, qualitatively speaking their performance was superior

since they won three gold medals more at the recently concluded games in the

United Kingdom. ■

Cuban leuris Pupo surprised everyone after beating

best rapid-fire pistol shooters of the world.

won in athens 2004, in addition to becoming the oldest runner, at 34, to win a gold medal in London 2012.

others who marked a difference were Trin-idadian Keshorn Walcott, winner in javelin throw; the Bahamas 400 meter relay team, made up by Michael Mathieu, Ramón Millar, demetrio Pinder and Chris Brown, which set a national record of 2:56:72 minutes, as well as Grenadian Kirani James, winner in the 400 meter sprint.

The countries that again were included in the table of medals were Cuba, Jamaica,

■■ BA■Guillermo■Bentez■Saz■Journalist of the Sports Staff of Cuban Television

The 30th olympic Games (London 2012) undoubtedly was the most important mul-tidisciplinary world sports event held in

the last four years.a total of 204 nations went to the British

capital from last august 12 to 27 to fraternally measure their strength in the 26 programmed sports, and among these there were 18 coun-tries from the 31 that make up the Caribbean.

The performance of Jamaican sprinter Us-ain Bolt and Cuba’s ascent from 28th to 16th place, as the leader of the Caribbean nations, peppered this geographic area’s perfor-mance.

Bolt was the Carib-bean’s topmost gold medalist with three titles, winning in the 100 and 200 meter sprint, as well as a member of his country’s 100 meter relay team, together with yohan Blake, nesta Carter and Michael Frater, which set a new world record of 36.84 seconds.

The Cuban delegation, meanwhile, won five gold medals through its shooter Leuris Pupo, judoka Idalys ortiz, wrestler Mijaín López and boxers Roniel Iglesias and Robeisys Ramírez.

The other Caribbean nations that won gold medals only achieved one and they were the dominican Republic, which ranked in 46th place; Trinidad and Tobago in 47th place; as well as Bahamas and Grenada, both ranking in 50th place.

In these cases, the performance of domin-ican sprinter Félix sánchez should be high-lighted, who reestablished himself and won a second olympic gold medal, after the one he

usain bolt was the Carib-

bean’s topmost gold med-

alist in london 2012.

The Caribbean in the Olympics

ARRIVAl of VISIToRS To CubA fRoM THE fIVE PRINCIPAl ISSuERS. JANuARy-AuguST 2012

a ToTaL of 2,210,649 foreign tourists traveled to Cuba be-tween January and august 2012, 5.2% more than the same period last year, according to the latest official available figures of the national office of statistics and Information (onEI) at the close of this edition.

The 17 principal issuing markets were, in that or-der: Canada (39.9%), United Kingdom (5.1%), Italy (3.8%), France (3.7%), argentina (3.7%), Germany, Russia, spain, Mexico, Venezuela, holland, Colombia, Chile, Peru, swit-zerland, China, Brazil and Belgium.

Cuba’s tourist authorities have forecasted that this year the number of travelers would reach 2.9 million; the sector aims to reach in the future the three million visitors. ■

Visits to Cuba by Foreign Tourists Grow

are some of the facilities for those who choose this hotel to vacation in Cuba.

Villa Cojímar will soon open a kitecenter for lovers of one of the extreme sports that at-tract the most followers worldwide.

In this way, those who practice kitesurfing will have here an access area for the takeoff, maritime safety and qualified personnel.

The stretch between Pilar and Los Perros beaches is a privileged area for practicing and learning kitesurfing because of the direction and force of the winds, not very deep waters, the tides’ behavior and the height of the waves. ■

VIllA CoJíMAR ***address: Cayo GuillermoJardines del Rey, Ciego de Ávila, CubaTelephone: (53 33) 30 1712Fax: (53 33) 30 1725Email: [email protected]

It has 280 rooms, all with air conditioning and telephone, satellite TV, safety deposit box, hairdryer, minibar, private bathroom, terrace and a view to the sea.

Four restaurants, the same amount of bars, Internet, a variety of sports, many entertain-ment options and wedding planning services

Those seeking tranquility and relaxation can find in Cayo Guillermo the ideal op-tion for their vacations in the Jardines del

Rey destination, to the north of the central province of Ciego de avila, some 380 km east of havana.

We’re talking about Villa Cojímar, recently renovated to expand its accommodation ca-pacities, improve the infrastructure and reno-vate the hotel’s image, the first to be built on Cayo Guillermo.

This three-star all-Inclusive installation is named after the small havana fishing town where U.s. writer Ernest hemingway used to dock his yacht Pilar.

The rooms located by the seashore were renovated, 54 new standard accommodations and eight junior suits were built, all of them located in double Brazilian-style wooden ca-banas.

It also opened a mini club with independent swimming pool, the beach thatched-roof res-taurant was redesigned to accommodate more guests, the Italian restaurant was renovated and the snack bar was completely restructured.

Villa Cojímar is a hotel of the Gran Caribe hotel Group that harmonizes with the nature of the area where it stands.

Villa Cojímar, a Getaway to Paradise

13


BLUE DIAMONDS Hotels & Resorts current-ly manages five Memories hotels in Cuba, with a total of 3,373 rooms:

• One in Varadero, four stars, the Memo-ries Varadero with 1,035 rooms

• Two five stars on Cayo Santa María, the Memories Paraíso and Azul complex, with 1,386 rooms

• Two on Cayo Coco; one four stars, which is the 328-room Memories Caribe, and one five stars, the Memories Flamenco, the latest incorporation in February, with 624 rooms.As a novelty, starting December 1 the

chain’s first Royalton Hotel will open its doors on Cayo Santa María. A Grand Luxury boutique hotel with 122 rooms, top quality services and installations, not to mention its exquisite gastronomy, for which “we have hired an internationally renowned chef to give the special touch we need in our restaurants,” Maite Medina, marketing director Cuba, said to TTC.

Medina added that “our hotels” man-agement team in Cuba is undergoing changes in its structure, headed by Mr. Faz-wi, and the favorable changes have imme-diately started to be seen in all the installa-tions, thus ensuring the success of the next winter season. Projections… are always be-ing brought up and, of course, we will con-tinue growing extensively on this marvel-ous island.”

Memories Paraíso and Azul.

Blue Diamond to Continue Growing in Cuba

completed in three four- and five-star ho-tels. In Cayo Guillermo, two accommoda-tions will be built in Playa Pilar –around 500 five-star deluxe rooms; and three five-stars in Punta alegre– some 1,162 rooms. In Cayo Paredón Grande the development of seven hotels with 3,200 five-star rooms is previewed, which will be gradually built un-til 2017.

Regarding the complementary offer, the de-velopment of two tourist towns is previewed, one in Los Flamencos (2013) and another in Punta alegre (2014); and in Cayo Coco, the building of an international marina in the ar-ea of Bautista, with 300 mooring spaces, while the ideas for a dolphinarium and a golf course are being developed.

To the north of Camagüey, Cayo Cruz will be the scenario where the Cayo Cruz –Cayo Guajaba– Cayo Mégano Grande destination will be developed, with a total of 9,250 rooms; and in Cayo sabinal, there are plans for 14,485 rooms.

“These new projects will be supported by an increase in the road infrastructure and the ser-vices that will allow access from the Jardines de Rey and Camagüey international airports, as well as the supply of water and electricity and the establishment of a new information and communications network,” oltuski con-cluded. ■

“In the Villa Clara cays we will continue the construction of hotels until in 2017 we reach a total of 13,093 rooms. Close to

Piedra Movida and in Cayo santa María, works began in the area of Lagunas del Este, a hotel development that will include five five-star hotels, with a total capacity for around 3,620 rooms, which should be finished completely in 2016,” the vice president of Gaviota said.

In Cayo Las Brujas, another five hotels will be built –two four stars and three five stars– that in all will incorporate close to 2,762 new rooms, a tourist town with sPa services and a golf course on terra firma, close to Caibarién; moreover, the Marina Gaviota Cayo Las Brujas will increase to 200 its mooring spaces.

Parallel to this, projects include: developing the support, communications, water supply and electricity infrastructure; expanding the transportation services by incorporating new yachts and catamarans and building a new highway that links santa Clara airport with the causeway to the cays of Villa Clara.

“But the expansion plans go beyond that, to the north of the provinces of Ciego de avila and Camagüey… by 2015, in Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo a total of 3,452 new hotel ca-pacities will have been concluded,” oltuski an-nounced.

Two hotels are being built in Cayo Co-co and close to 2,268 new capacities will be

Frank P. Oltuski Rodrguez, Marketing Vice President of the Gaviota Tourism Group, gave a lecture on the future development of the tourist product in the cays to the north of Cuba –to reach more than 45,000 new rooms between the Villa Clara cays and Cayo Coco, Cayo Guiller-mo and Cayo Sabinal– at the inaugural session of FITCuba 2012. Given its interest, TTC is publishing a summary of that information.

Investment Projections in the Cays North of Cuba

Marina gaviota Cayo las brujas will increase to 200 its mooring spaces.


cos, Barbados, Cuba (Cayo santa María, havana, holguín and Varade-ro), dominican Republic (Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, La Romana and samaná), Jamaica and the Mexican Caribbean.

Barbados, antigua, saint Lucia, Jamaica, Bahamas, Tobago, Cu-ba, Mexican Caribbean and Grenada, plus st. Maarten and Turks and Caicos, for some nautical activities and adventure, are destinations in which Virgin Holidays operates; and antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Ber-muda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, do-minican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Cancun, st. Kitts-nevis, saint Lucia, saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago, Turks and Caicos, are offered by The Holiday Place. ■

aMonG the tour operators that market the Caribbean region in the United Kingdom, those that stand out for the diversity of their offers, types of products and amount of destinations where they operate are Thomas Cook, Thomson holidays, Virgin holidays and The holiday Place, according to information on their websites.

The Thomas Cook portfolio includes Cancun, Cuba –Morón, ha-vana, Caibarién, santa Clara, Minas, Ciego de Ávila– and the domini-can Republic –Palo Bonito, Bayahíbe, Boca de Pantanal, Bavaro, Los Ranchitos and Puerto Plata.

Meanwhile, Thomson Holidays extends its portfolio of offers to an-tigua, Bahamas, Grenada, saint Lucia, Jamaica, Tobago, Turks and Cai-

British Market Operators for Caribbean Destination


Today our multiculturalism identity is symbolised by the Steelpan, a versatile, amazing musical instrument.

But our history shows that our indepen-dence of thought and action, our ideals and pursuance of social justice and equity, of eco-nomic and political independence has never been in question, and has never ceased.

Today our multiculturalism identity is symbolised by the steelpan, a versatile, amaz-ing musical instrument, the only musical in-strument invented in the 20th century and developed in spite of the full force of colonial terror.

It is symbolised in our autochthonous mu-sic, calypso, a traditional expression of resis-tance, of our hopes and dreams and our vision for a better world.

our identity is crystallised in the multitude of genres of musical expression of our multi-ethnic family, calypso, soca, classical Indian music, chutney, chutney soca, parang, soca pa-rang to name a few.

our national identity is expressed in our national observances of various religious and cultural traditions, as attested to by the fact of our many national holidays. not many coun-tries have more than we do.

our national identity is reflected in our multicultural expression of the Trinidad Car-nival, the greatest show on earth, our most im-portant export which for many years has been celebrated by patriots, and coverts abroad in major cities of the world.

The Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago in Cuba, with the support and collaboration of the Ministry of Culture, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People and Randance show, is proud to celebrate the 50th anniver-sary of the independence of Trinidad and To-bago, two islands, one nation. ■

ish colonialism in Trinidad and Tobago and in the West Indies, and whose legacy is a strong Caribbean Trade Union Movement.

our national pride and national identity has been nurtured by committed nationalists and internationalists such as George Padmore, acclaimed after his death as the father of afri-can Liberation; such as stokely Carmichael al-so known as Kwane Toure, a militant protago-nist in the civil rights movement in the United states in the 60’s and 70’s, credited with hav-ing coined the phrase Black Power; and by af-rican Prince daaga, leader of the action Joint national Committee, who served as inspira-tion for a profound social-cultural revolution in the 70’s.

The Trinidad Carnival is the greatest show on earth.

■■ Her■Excellency■Dr.■Jennifer■Jones-Kernahan■Ambassador of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in Cuba

Trinidad and Tobago, after a long and op-pressive history of slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, hoisted the symbol

of its sovereignty, its national flag, on august 31, 1962, under the leadership of Prime Minis-ter dr. Eric Williams.

From the depths of a savage, brutal, discrim-inatory and racist society a strong Caribbean people has emerged, capable of facing the in-evitable challenges and constraints in order to forge together, institutions such as Cuba, CaR-ICoM and ECLaC, which defend the princi-ples of independence, social justice, peaceful co-existence, collaboration and fraternity.

The achievement of this milestone has inev-itably generated in the hearts and minds of our people a state of sober introspection, a level of intense analyses of our unique multicultural national identity.

We celebrate our Caribbean identity, forged from the love of liberty on the part of our first peoples, amerindians, Caribs, decimated but never destroyed. The first peoples have sur-vived and today their cultural traditions are part of our identity as a people.

We celebrate our identity forged in the fires and trials of our ancestors: those brought in chains from africa, bought and sold like chat-tel, their very humanity denied.

But who can chain Man’s love of Liberty?We celebrate those brought from India as

indentured labourers, and have survived dis-crimination and oppression to define their place and contribution to a new Trinbagonian identity.

Indeed, in the words of one of Trinbago’s outstanding poets and protagonist of the genre of poetry called Rapso, Brother Resistance: “We’ve been oppressed for a very long time but we never surrendered”.

our collective retrospection allows us to re-vere the memory hyarima, hero of amarin-dian resistance.

We remind our children of the Camboulay riots in the early 19th century when afro Trini-dadians defended their right to celebrate their traditional streets parades, and of the massacre perpetrated against Indo Trinidadians in 1884, who defended their rights to religious freedom.

We celebrate our national identity moulded and shaped in the struggle of our people in 1937, led by our national hero Tubal Uriah “Buzz” Butler, political leader of the British Empire workers and Citizens home Rule Party, and militant Trade Union Leader, whose anti-colo-nial movement rocked the foundations of Brit-

Trinidad and Tobago Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Independence


tions, which has announced the start of a third flight from the United Kingdom in april.

INTERJET CoNNECTS MoNTERREy AND HAVANAThe Interjet airline recently

opened a direct route that will be covered with two weekly frequen-cies, Thursdays and sundays, be-tween the Mexican city of Mon-terrey and the Cuban capital. The flights will be carried out on a320s with capacity for 150 pas-sengers.

north and holguín. Eight of the frequencies will depart from the Buenos aires Ezeiza International airport and the other from Cór-doba or Rosario. Moreover, the airline announced it will extend its services in the Caribbean and Central american regions.

EuRoPE-CANCuN CoNNECTIoN ExPANDSThe French Corsair airline

has started two weekly frequen-cies between France and Cancun, which have joined the air France KLM and Virgin atlantic opera-

Grenada, Montserrat, nevis, saba, saint Eustatius, saint Kitts, saint Maarten, saint Vincent, Trinidad and Tobago.

MoRE CubANA AIRlINES flIgHTSCubana airlines will operate

nine new flights between argen-tina and Cuba during the 2012-2013 peak season; four of these air links could become regular flights and it plans to reach the destinations with the highest de-mand among argentine tourists: havana, Varadero, the cays to the

CoNDoR INCoRPoRATES NEW DESTINATIoNS IN MExICoafter signing an agreement

with Mexico’s Volaris, Condor has incorporated new destinations in Mexico: Mexico City, Guadalaja-ra, Puebla and Toluca via Cancun; from Madrid, Barcelona or Bilbao.

NEW flIgHTS To guyANA AND bARbADoS fRoM SuRINAMECaricom airways plans to start

regular services to Guyana and Barbados from its surinamese hub next december. The airline operates charter flights to several Caribbean destinations: anguilla, Barbados, Grenadines, dominica,

Havana.

N E W A I R C o N N E C T I o N S I N T H E C A R I b b E A N


The English-speaking Caribbean is looking forward to cruise ships with increasingly greater enthusiasm.

it possible for foreigners to freely move throughout those states af-ter completing the immigration paperwork in the first port of en-try. Undoubtedly, a risky initiative in the face of times of risk.

Life for the English-speaking Caribbean –as well as for the oth-er islands on that sea– is not easy, and it is not expected to be at least in the near future. a newspaper from the area, antigua sun, re-cently said that the region is still placing its development in the hands of the prosperity of tour-ism, but, cautiously, it recom-mended that the governments should take advantage of other opportunities “beyond” the lei-sure sphere. an editorial by this publication said that tourism is like a backup platform for the area’s continuous challenges in its development. It quoted in this sense a report by the entity Cen-tre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) which under-lined that the regional govern-ments’ current concerns include migration, increasingly more complex commercial relations with the world and the support provided by tourism.

Economists in the area believe that an important factor in that regional situation is the need to develop the services as an impor-tant source of income. This will be possible only if the region moves beyond tourism to take advan-tage of opportunities in the area in terms of financial and bank-ing services, the editorial recom-mended.

however, this is asking for the impossible. That is why, the is-lands continue, as centuries ago, scanning the horizon to see the life-saving ship, currently the large floating hotels with passen-gers full of money. ■

force to attract more tourists. For example, the 16th Tourism Mart held last June in the dominican Republic bet on “a solid multi-destination Caribbean strategy”. Though this is not, in the least, a recent effort.

The region’s tour operators still remember the so-called sin-gle domestic space that united a dozen English-speaking countries during the World Cricket Cup, a sport inherited from the British: antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, saint Lucia, saint Kitts-nevis, saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trin-idad and Tobago and dominica. This space was in force from Jan-uary 15 to May 15, 2007 and made

200 large recreation ships passed through its locks during the 2011-2012 cruise season, with a total of 220,000 passengers.

The islands are struggling to attract to their ports, to get ad-ditional “spills” of income, the world’s largest ships of this type and are not disoriented. Cruise ships, worldwide, expect to trans-port 17 million persons in 2012, which would be 4% more than in 2011. The figure is right if it is taken into account that 415 mil-lion tourists traveled through the planet from May to august 2012, despite the crisis.

The Caribbean, no matter what language it speaks, also seems more aware that in unity lies the

■■ Frank■Martin

A placid fine sandy beach that can be in any of the 12 na-tions making up the Eng-

lish-speaking Caribbean is not just a reason to go on vacations in these states. It is also a basic and crucial product for the fragile economies of the area.

The leisure industry, in the midst of the global crisis affect-ing the world –the rich countries issuers of tourism as well– already proved to be a sort of cornerstone for those paradisiacal islands that if withdrawn by some giant hand would cause a human disaster of biblical proportions.

But the English-speaking Ca-ribbean, made up by antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Be-lize, dominica, Grenada, Guy-ana, Jamaica, saint Kitts-nevis, saint Lucia, saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and To-bago, has no plans to change tour-ism for some other national re-source. The situation would not allow it.

Rather, the islands with popu-lations that range from 2,825,928 inhabitants in the case of Jamai-ca, to barely 52,000 in saint Kitts-nevis, are well prepared to fight to attract –at times at all costs– in-ternational tourism.

Five years ago, in 2007, the Eng-lish-speaking Caribbean and the states of this tropical sea already gave the definitive momentum to the hotels with the “all-inclu-sive” system, especially the span-ish headed by the Meliá chain. But the palm trees are for cruise ships, at whose service, with increasing-ly greater enthusiasm, the ports of the English-speaking Caribbean are placing themselves.

according to official Pana-ma Canal statistics, no less than

English-Speaking Caribbean Still Confident of Its Beaches


attentive staff, and the arenas doradas, a hotel resort that has had 100% of its rooms and instal-lations renewed and offers its guests a diverse va-riety of new services designed to satisfy the most demanding clients, also with a humane, familiar and welcoming team, internationally renowned.

at present, hoteles C is carrying out mul-tiple works to expand, in Cuba as well as in the rest of the Caribbean, in order to continue of-fering a quality and personalized service and a familiar treatment to make you feel we are always Close to you… ■

We have currently restructured our hotel portfolio in Cuba to offer the best to our dear clients. In the havana tourist destination we manage the Presidente hotel, which still has the charm of the 1920s in its recently remod-eled installations and has the assistance of a qualified staff whose principal characteristic is its kindness and dedication.

We also manage in the Varadero tourist desti-nation the Barlovento, a cozy hotel very well posi-tioned in the markets, because of its proximity to the center of Varadero as well as its pleasant and

hoTELEs C will participate in another edi-tion of the World Travel Market from the Cu-ba stand, where it will hold meetings with the principal British and international tour opera-tors with the aim of improving collaboration, as well as making new contacts to increase the flow of clients to our hotels in the marvelous Cuba destination that, year after year, contin-ues providing a wide range of cultural options as well as multiple leisure and entertainment activities so that their visitors can enjoy an un-forgettable stay.

Arenas Doradas Hotel.Hotel Presidente.

Hoteles C Improves its Hotel Portfolio in Cuba


The journeys have been pro-grammed starting February 2014 and will allow for choosing be-tween 6- and 14-night cruise trips that link Cuba with other Carib-bean nations.

The news responds to a new ini-tiative of the shipping line to exploit the tourist attractions of Cuba, Ja-maica and the Dominican Republic.

Star Clippers will initially have four routes of this type that will cov-er a sailboat, the Star Flyer, a four-mast ship built similar to former clippers and with a capacity for 170 passengers.

THE LUxURy Star Clippers cruise company announced it will in-clude Cuba on its routes starting 2014. The firm, one of the world’s most important, announced that its routes will touch Cuban ports with exploration programs and visits to beaches, colonial cities and the possibility of visiting, be-fore or after the cruise, Havana.

Star Clippers to Include Cuba on Its Routes

INTEgRATIoN of gDS AND INTERNETTechnology has driven everything toward

an open and global environment on the Inter-net, has generalized protocols and modified the established business regulations.

In terms of conceptualization, all the agen-cies’ transactions through Gds (including the ones on line) as well as those on the websites of suppliers, are company-level electronic trade types (B2B) or for tourists (B2C).

amadeus bases its electronic distribution platform on a centralized Multichannel dis-tribution system so that the content published in the Gds can be reproduced on the webs of the suppliers, seeking the most efficient chan-nels in each case.

For example, Cubana airlines carries out around 12% of its bookings on its web through an interface with the Gds. The hotels and agencies have the same possibility of integrat-ing amadeus tools on their webs, allowing them to increase online sales maintaining a balance in the costs and according to the re-turn forecast. Everything cannot be booked on line.

The integration of the direct online channel (airline, hotel and other suppliers’ websites) and the indirect channel (traditional and vir-tual travel agencies clients of the Gds) is an es-sential factor for a successful electronic distri-bution strategy in Cuba, that responds to the demand, of the foreign market as well as of the growing national market. ■

sector. The content incorporation of car rent-als, bus transportation, insurance companies and other local suppliers is also expected.

CubAN TRAVEl AgENCIES IN THE AMADEuS gDSTravel agencies are the third link in the

global distribution chain. amadeus has signed agreements with havanatur and Cu-batur –the first travel agencies in Cuba sub-scribed to a Gds– to use the amadeus sell-ing Platform (asP), the application for agencies most used in the world (present in some 90,000 travel agencies and more than 62,000 airline offices).

asP allows agents to: ▶ speed up sales through a single point of ac-

cess to all rates, ▶ optimized business processes and personal-

ization possibilities, ▶ bookings in more than 425 airlines, 287 ho-

tel chains, 103 railroad companies and 20 car rentals worldwide,

▶ integral and global offer to its clients, in-cluding those of corporative and multides-tination trips, and

▶ 365x24 access to the data Processing Center of amadeus in Germany.amadeus’ distribution and business model

has many advantages for Cuban entities, since it guarantees access to the technology and sys-tems of world leading Gds with total security and availability.

■■ Dr.■Jos■Enrique■Salgado■Permanent Professor, University of Havana

The Gds, electronic distribution giants in the travel and tourism sector, make it pos-sible for online and traditional travel agen-

cies to book flights, hotels, cruise trips, insur-ance, car rentals and other services –associated to a number of passengers; they process billions of these electronic transactions every year.

“The Gds model emerged in its time as an ‘adder’ of all the contents, and the fact that an agency can have online and electronic access to multiple suppliers turns it into a model ful-ly in force and, moreover, very efficient,” Luis Maroto, CEo of amadeus IT Group, affirms.

CubAN SuPPlIERS IN THE gDSCuba has achieved a significant growth of

“a responsible, non-pollutant and sustainable tourism” that “guarantees peace, health secu-rity in the environment-friendly context.” The attributes of the Cuba destination, authentic, rich and diverse, will attract this year close to three million visitors who place it among those with the highest demand in the Caribbean, which requires a more efficient electronic dis-tribution strategy.

since 1993 Cubana airlines distributes its flights in amadeus, one of the four greats worldwide, and is today a systems User, which contributes other marketing and price advan-tages. ninety-nine percent of the visitors ar-rive in the country by air and the Gds pub-lishes the content of all the airlines that fly to the island.

In 2007, the offer of the Cubanacán, Gran Caribe and Islazul hotel chains joined amade-us, as done by international hotel chains in Cu-ba like Meliá and accor (through their head-quarters’ contracts), while the habaguanex and Palco hotels are published as part of sub-scribed “consolidators” in the Gds.

More than 70% of the country’s hotels are in the European Gds. Bookings in amadeus are headed by the hotel nacional de Cuba. other accommodations could be added in the future, including those of the private or autonomous

Global Distribution Systems (GDS) in Cuba


Mexican Caribbean Beach Hotels the Best

THE RIVIERA Maya and Cancún beach hotels are among the first positions in the raking of the In-siders’ Select 2012 list, drawn out by the Expedia on line travel agency.

This list includes the world’s best hotels available on the com-pany’s portal, which are classified according to the guests’ evalua-tion on the quality of service and value for money they offer.

The winning hotels include the Fairmont Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen (Rivera Maya) and the Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort Villas, in Cancún.

and eluding as much as possible filling with mercantilism our tourist horizons, would be a beneficial goal.

In terms of the level of income that the Ca-ribbean has been able to generate in recent decades from the tourist sector, it is satisfac-tory, keeping in mind that its fundamental weakness lies in the imbalance between the higher growth in the percentage of rooms than the growth of the effective reception of tourists.

The countries that register the most rooms are the dominican Republic and Cuba with more than 42% of the regional total, which emphasizes a certain margin of inefficiency due to the incongruence between the growth in rooms and the real number of visitors. This gap has been compensated for thanks to the increase in the average yield per tourist.

In the contemporary world, where the study of the leisure industry has become indispens-able to understand society, the course de-manded by millions of users each year has to be drawn up according to the role that these consortiums assume as responsible for the ex-pansion of a greater wellbeing that aspires to integrality. ■

enclaves bathed by the sun and warm waters, make the Caribbean one of the favorite spots in the americas (the second tourist destina-tion after north america); for more than a decade many of its countries have been ex-ceeding the one billion dollars in income. despite this, the Caribbean region is still not among the principal regional destinations worldwide.

The dependence on the leisure industry for the economic stability and growth of the area determines the need for diversification strat-egies and the transformation of proposals for users who are increasingly more demanding in terms of destinations and qualitatively su-perior experiences. The growing complex-ity of contemporary man who is completely immersed in the so-called post-modernity is waiting for formulas that will meet the de-sires that were undreamed of only some de-cades ago.

offering our visitors the magic reality dor-mant at times in the daily life of these lands

Today the tourist industry is for the econo-my of the Caribbean countries what the sugar industry used to be during the 19th century. The gradual transformation of the Caribbean economies in favor of the tourist sector was fundamentally seen starting the second half of the last century. however, together with the arrival of these new possibilities, a risk inher-ent to this emerging sector was introduced in the region’s economic sphere: the dependence on favorable conditions and not on the princi-pal issuing countries.

In the first decade of the new century the principal issuing markets for the region have been the United states with 48.3% of the visi-tors, almost half of the total visitors; Europe with 27.8%; and Canada with 6.2%. although the issuing of U.s. tourists continues being a majority from a regional perspective, we can find countries whose reception fundamentally comes from Europe, as is the case of Cuba, Cu-racao, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Martinique, the dominican Republic, antigua and Barbuda and the netherlands antilles.

The special climate characteristics of the region, the impressive cultural and ethnic-historical diversity of the majority of these

■■ Julio■Antonio■Gmez■Professor of the Don Fernando Ortiz House of Higher Studies, University of Havana

Tourism for the Caribbean EconomyA distinctive climate and an impressive cultural, ethnic and historical diversity, make the Caribbean one of the preferred places in America. Photo: Hoteles C.

Documents

TTC Online #214 - World Travel Market (WTM) (English Edition)