RELIGION-CUBA: Pope’s Visit Could Bring 20 Million Dollars

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Dec 8 1997 (IPS) - Pope John Paul II’s January visit could bring Cuba some 20 million dollars in revenues.

That figure, considered “conservative” by people involved in planning the Pontiff’s visit, was calculated by the New York-based U.S.- Cuba Economic and Commercial Council.

Around 14,000 reporters, clergy, government officials, business representatives, and Roman Catholics could flock to Cuba on the occasion of the Pope’s visit, according to the report.

The more than 200- member Council, chaired by businessman John Kavulich, is dedicated to advising executives of U.S. companies interested in getting to know the potentialities of the Cuban market and doing business with Cuba.

The members of the organisation receive regular information on the state of the Cuban economy and advice on the legal loopholes through which to get around the restrictions imposed by the nearly four decades- old U.S. economic embargo.

If each one of the 14,000 projected visitors spends at least 200 dollars a day during a five-day stay, that would bring in around 14 million dollars, says the report. But, it adds, an estimated 4,000 journalists will stay seven to 10 days, spending more than 200 dollars a day.

Furthermore, the 14 million dollar figure does not contemplate travel fares, visas, airport fees, rental cars, rent and use of cell-phones, local calls from hotel rooms, and trips to the cities of Santa Clara, Camaguey and Santiago, located 300, 570 and 965 kms from Havana, respectively, where the Pope will also give mass.

Hotels in Havana and Santiago – Cuba’s second largest city – are doubling their rates, and restaurant prices and costs of inter- provincial flights and car rentals are also expected to rise.

Airport user fees alone for the 14,000 visitors will bring in some 210,000 dollars, the report adds. And that is not even counting the travel fares of the estimated 3,000 people who could fly with the Cuban Aviation airline.

If those 3,000 were to fly in through Nassau, Bahamas, that would mean a total of 504,000 dollars, given the 168 dollar cost of a round-trip ticket. But “the revenues will be double that in the case of those who fly from Mexico, where tickets cost more than 300 dollars, and considerably more for those bought in Europe or South America, where rates are above 1,000 dollars,” said a Cuban Aviation official.

The Council also pointed out that the U.S. government sets a limit of 100 dollars a day to be spent by U.S. residents in Cuba, plus an upper limit of 100 dollars in Cuban goods – such as Havana Club rum and cigars – that can be brought home.

If 5,000 people return to the United States with 100 dollars worth of goods – and local experts predict that most will stretch that limit – that would mean 500,000 dollars worth of purchases, says the report.

The Council also calculates that telephone calls to the United States alone, at rates ranging from three to four dollars a minute, plus the use of cell-phones could mean one million dollars in additional revenues.

“U.S. TV channels are reserving entire floors of the Havana Libre Hotel,” the report adds. Rooms in several top-notch Havana hotels could cost up to 300 dollars a day during the Pope’s visit.

News agencies, TV stations and magazine and newspaper correspondents have already made their reservations, and some are even opening offices in Havana Libre, where the press room for the Pontiff’s visit will be located.