From our Bureau of Socialist Compassion and Social Justice with some assistance from our Bureau of Socialist Versions of New-York-style Fuhggeddaboudit
Castro, Inc. has made its priorities very clear: “Don’t expect us to fix your damaged roof any time soon, if ever.” Pa’l carajo con las casas destruidas, necesitamos mas turistas! To hell with wrecked houses, need more tourists! Aaaah, the many joys of socialism.
Nothing new here, just the latest version of Castro, Inc.’s meditative mantra, the sound of which drowns out all cries of distress from the Cuban people: Ommmmmm, . . .keep those hotel generators humming and the building cranes swingin’ away . . . .
From Havana Times
The Cuban government has acknowledged that it will only be able to address 50% of the damage to roofs of homes caused by hurricanes Oscar and Rafael, as well as the earthquakes on November 10, 2024.
During a meeting on November 17, the Minister of Economy and Planning, Joaquin Alonso Vasquez, reminded that, in addition to the damages caused by these natural disasters, there are still cases of people affected by weather events in Pinar del Río (Hurricane Ian in 2022) and Guantánamo (Hurricane Matthew in 2017).
In contrast to the limited resources allocated to the repair of damaged homes, the tourism sector is recovering quickly, with the goal of being ready in the first days of December to receive tourists for the high season of 2024-2025.
This was confirmed by Juan Carlos García, the minister in charge of the Tourism who assured Granma newspaper that “the country and the Cuban economy” need the vitality of the hotel industry. Although he acknowledged that they will not meet the target of 3 million visitors in 2024, they are focusing their efforts and resources on improving services for tourists.
Although tourism in Cuba is practically the only one in the region that has not recovered since the 2019 pandemic, the government prioritizes what it calls “the engine of the economy.”
Despite the low occupancy rate – 28.4% in the first half of 2024 – resources have not been allocated to the recovery of other important sectors, such as agriculture or energy, nor to public services like health and education, despite daily reports of poor conditions in schools and hospitals.
Economist Pedro Monreal reported that “from 2020 to June 2024, investment primarily associated with tourism (the sum of ‘hotels and restaurants’ and ‘business services and real estate activity’) averaged 38.9% of the country’s total investment, compared to 9.4% for investment in electricity, gas, and water.”
The Canadian tour operator agency Sunwing, one of the largest sources of vacationers to Cuba, eliminated 26 hotels from its offerings on the island due to quality issues.
Samantha Taylor, the head of marketing, told Pax News that the hotels did not meet the expectations of what guests truly wanted to experience and acknowledged that prices had risen while quality had declined.
Regarding the loss of trust among Canadians in Cuban tourism, she mentioned that they had received cancellations and complaints from clients because the infrastructure did not meet expectations.
“What does a five-star hotel in Cuba mean? What’s to expect at a three-star hotel? What we see in our customers’ comments is that Canadians want transparency in what they are receiving. They don’t want surprises,” said Taylor.
Problems related to the quality of offerings are well known to Cuban authorities. Tourism minister Garcia stated that, to improve the conditions and services, “they created wholesale tourism provider companies, some of them with 100% foreign capital.”
Still, clients maintain questions regarding the quality of state-run tourist services, and some agencies suggest booking tours and trips through private businesses, which also guarantee electricity with generators and honestly explain to tourists what to expect from their trip and what they need to bring.
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