CUBA-DEVELOPMENT: Tourism Up but Growth Wanes

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 24 1997 (IPS) - Foreign tourists are flocking to Cuba in increasing numbers this year but the growth rate is short of official predictions, official sources said here.

Sources in the Ministry of Tourism revealed that in January and February Cuba welcomed nearly 220,000 – seven percent more than the same period last year – but, to fulfill official economic predictions for 1996, a sustained growth of 10 percent is needed.

Government officials had hoped for an increase of between 11 and 13 percent in January and February, two of the four “high season” months, in order to compensate for the low periods, the sources said. The high season started last December with 101.556 tourists and would have to attract 129,000 this month if the planned figures of 450,000 tourists were to be reached.

Alejandro Lauro, viceminister of Tourism, said Canada had recovered its old position as the main supplier of the holiday crowd with a total of 46,853 tourists. Italy came second with 42,633, after having led the field last year.

This is the first information released on the situation of visitors on the island since the beginning of the high season last December.

“This is neither particularly good nor bad,” said one tourist sector official, adding that the authorities now had their hopes pinned on tourist spending during Easter week which will end March 31.

A statement by Marite Lopez, representative of the Cuban ministry office in Spain, printed in the official Granma newspaper said that there were no vacancies on flights to Cuba over easter.

“Everything has remained completely normal, there have been no cancellations,” she said. her remarks followed a recent incident between involving the governments of Havana and Madrid, which was expected to have some effect on the flow of tourists.

Spain’s foreign minister, Abel Matutes said he might warn Spanish nationals against travelling to the island because of a supposed lack of legal guarantees, after a Spanish tourist, Jesus Martin, was forced to remain in the country for a court appearance following a traffic accident.

Lopez said there had been no cancellations and “people are forming waiting lists for any cancelled journeys in order to travel to Cuba.”

Official data reported the island received 1,433,600 tourists last year, 17 percent more than in 1995, the greatest increase in the Caribbean region. In that year, Italy took the lead, sending 129,297 tourists, followed by Canada with 162,766, Spain 117,957, Germany 80,185, France 62,742, Mexico 37,229, Argentina 31,331, Britain 28.007, Colombia 25,251 and Portugal 14,467.

Cuba is aiming to end the century with 49,556 hotel rooms, out of an estimated potential of 150,000, which means the current figure will have to be doubled, with investment close of two billion pesos (equal to dollars at the official exchange rate). Sources in the Cuban Economic Studies Centre said the perspectives for tourist development are based on 67 centres, with a potential for 200,000 rooms, 10 million tourists and an income of between 10 and 15 billion dollars.

Vicepresident Carlos Lage said “the economy is behaving as planned” classing the performance of key sectors like the nickel and tobacco production and tourism as “good.”

The economic crisis Cuba has lived through since 1990 has affected all economic sectors and produced a reduction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 34.3 percent between 1989 and 1993. The GDP began to show a slight recovery in 1994 with growth of 0.7 percent, in 1995 it rose to 2.5 percent, and to 7.8 percent last year. Forecasts for this year see a rise of five percent.

The authorities are counting on tourism as a way out of the economic crisis. According to estimations, in 1994 the sector was already competing with sugar on the amount of income generated.

According to Lage, “tourism is becoming more consolidated at the industry of the future, the one which will offer the basic contributions to the development of the country, not only because of the income, but also as it will promote investments in the rest of the economy and create jobs in other branches.”