Cuba Seeks To Use Tourism Boom To Boost Other Economic Areas

Cuba Seeks To Use Tourism Boom To Boost Other Economic Areas

14ymedio, Havana, 20 May 2017 — Cuba seeks to take advantage of the
recent rise of tourism, one of the locomotives of the island’s economy,
to boost other areas and local services, in which the tourism sector
invested more than 310 million Cuban convertible pesos in 2016.

This figure represents approximately 64% of the operating expenses
incurred by state tourism companies, compared to 160 million CUC spent
on the import of food and other products from abroad, some 26% of total
expenditures, according to an article in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde.

Last year Cuba bought cutlery, crockery, linens, office supplies,
cleaning supplies, disposable products and furniture, as well as
preserved fruits and vegetables, sausages, dairy products, jams and
beers, given that domestic supplies could not meet the demand.

During a forum of the fourth National Business Fair, happening in Havana
and ongoing until Thursday, leaders of Cuban Light Industry said they
had already made “a group of micro-investments to expand capacities” and
offerings for the tourism sector.

The general director of the National Company of Select Fruits, Juan
Carlos Rodríguez, stated that by 2017 some 60 local companies will
guarantee 128 agricultural products and anticipated that they
will engage in more efficient agrotechnical practices to produce
prioritized and high demand crops such as fruits and vegetables.

To confront the boom of foreign visitors to the island, which this year
is expected to surpass the 4 million tourists received in 2016, the
country plans to build 224 new hotel facilities by 2030, said María del
Pilar Macías, director general of the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR).

The goal is to build 103,000 new rooms by that year, she explained.

In addition, MINTUR plans to refurnish and build more than 20 nautical
and marine clubs, an equal number of real estate properties to house
foreigners, and the same number of golf courses with almost a dozen
associated hotels, some of them already underway with companies from
Germany, China and Spain.

Source: Cuba Seeks To Use Tourism Boom To Boost Other Economic Areas –
Translating Cuba –
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