Thursday, August 13, 2009

Cuban tourists in Varadero

From the Global Post website, here’s an interesting report from Nick Miroff about Cubans staying in Varadero hotels.

According to Miroff, for less than $200, Cubans are buying packages that get them a week in an all-inclusive hotel on the peninsula and includes bus transportation to and from Havana. “Many of Varadero’s upper-end facilities are still full of foreigners, but the more affordable resorts have been jammed with Cubans all summer,” he reports.

Raul Castro’s April 2008 action that ended the prohibition on Cubans staying in hotels in their own country was positive from a human rights perspective, and it also makes good economic sense for the government.

Like the action on cell phones, it soaks up some of the hard currency purchasing power that some Cubans enjoy, whether through their jobs, their enterprises, or gifts from relatives. (When the Obama Administration gets around to implementing its April 13 decision to allow unlimited remittances, there will be a lot more.)

$200 per head per week must be very close to the break-even point, but even if these travelers provide little or no profit, there’s a benefit for the tourism industry. July and August are an extremely low season for tourism in Cuba, coinciding with vacation time for lots of Cubans. If Cubans fill some hotels in July and August, they maintain the hotels’ cash flow, keep the staff working, and prevent the closing of hotels that we have seen during some summer seasons.

[Photo from merlin-world.com.]

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

all the major cuban tourist agencies offering specials to locals and foreigners staying in cuba, great bargains not just in varadero.
fyi August is not considered low season, lots of europeans vacation in cuba that month, and canadians too. low season may, june, july, sept oct

leftside said...

This will also give Veradero and the other tourist resorts some much needed life. Whereby tourists usually want to be amongst themselves in many destinations. In Cuba, the cultured, affable people are a prime draw.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how monitored these things are. I'm sure someone has thought of a business where they can bring 'friends' with them, charge the friends a fee, and then enjoy the beach and the Cuban price.

Anonymous said...

cuban price is in chavitos.

Anonymous said...

si pero cuanto, seguro que yo mismo me pongo como jinetero y gano muuuuuucho

Anonymous said...

so how do you know that leftcrank? that "affable" natives are "a prime draw." they have no freedoms, no economic opportunity, no future, yet these noble savages are "happy" in their primitive environment for the pleasure of European and Canadian tourists. You're like reading a British colonialist travelogue in Africa c.1850.

chingon

leftside said...

Chingon, you are asking me how do I know Cubans are one of the best things about Cuba? Are you serious? I've been there...

Somehow liking the Cuban people means that I am a European racist c. 1850, eh? Your logic could not be more astute! Haha...

And I did not say anything about Cuban being "happy." But since you went there, the Happy Planet Index was just published and Cuba ranked #7 in the world.

Anonymous said...

To Leftside
From NLNR
Date August 17, 2009
Re: Good Will Hunting Excerpt

SEAN (played by Robin Williams) to WILL (played by Matt Damon):
You and your bull*. You got an answer for everybody. But I asked you
a straight question and you can't give me a straight answer.

Are you ever going to answer my questions Leftside? Would you at least answer this?

NLNR

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