By Dalia Acosta
CAYO COCO, Cuba, Dec 27 1999 (IPS)

The Jardines del Rey archipelago, some 1,400 km of small islands just off the north-central coast of Cuba, is preparing to become the Caribbean’s premiere tourist destination for nature lovers in the new century.

With more than 110 km of beaches and the potential to build 33,000 hotel rooms, the archipelago combines even greater attributes than Varadero, Cuba’s main resort, or many other Caribbean islands that live from tourism.

The area’s development project includes the construction of an international airport, a sea port, golf course, convention centre, office buildings, commercial centre, as well as the creation of El Bagá Nature Park, to encompass 1,000 hectares.

“We are promoting family tourism most of all,” said Carlos Zamora, assistant general director of the Daiquirí Hotel, managed by Spain’s Iberostar hotel chain, in Cayo Guillermo, some 500 km from Havana.

Since the first hotel opened in 1993, Jardines del Rey (King’s Gardens) has attracted more than 500,000 tourists. In 1999, most of the visitors came from Canada, Germany, Italy, France and Argentina.

The “everything included” packages and the fact that there is no room or meal charge for children at the hotels has made the chain of islands a magnet for those who want to relax with their families.

The strategy is part of the Cuban government’s broader policy to try to erase its image as a Caribbean sex-tourism paradise, a reputation the island developed over the last decade.

“Five percent of the tourists are younger than 15. Some 70,000 children visited Cuba this year,” said the Ministry of Tourism’s commercial director, Juan Oscar Hernández.

All hotels in Cuba are equipped with children’s services, including on-staff nannies and adjoining rooms to accommodate families, he added.

But a major goal of Jardines del Rey development is to conserve the surroundings of these keys and islets as a biodiversity reserve, an ecosystem considered unique in the world.

Biologists have identified more than 250 native animal species in the archipelago, including 28 kinds of reptiles and more than 200 bird species. On Cayo Coco alone, researchers have recorded 340 plant species.

Flocks of an endangered species of pink flamingoes, as well as native and migratory birds, can be observed on the islands.

“We do not want any hunting here. Fishing is strictly regulated, and underwater hunting is prohibited. The hotels are built no taller than three stories and all construction is kept distant from the dunes,” stated a guide from the state-run Cuban tourist agency, Cubatur.

Cayo Coco, with its 370 square km area, is linked with Cayo Guillermo and connected to the Cuban main island by a 17 km stone causeway.

Today, ecologists and engineers are attempting to remedy the bridge’s original construction errors, as builders did not take into account the flow of water and the effects on the ecosystem.

Stone roads, which will unite most of the Jardines del Rey keys, are now built with waterways through them to prevent further harm to the environment than has been caused already by human presence in previously unpopulated, virgin territory.

The environmental laws Cuba adopted over the last decade are strict, and establish that any investment in this natural refuge must first be approved by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

The ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a project in November for the 4.6 million-dollar, five-year investment to implement environmental protection mechanisms for Jardines del Rey.

The project includes the creation of eight new protected areas over an area of 128,000 hectares, with financial support coming from the UNDP’s Capacity 21 Fund and the Cuban and Canadian governments.

“The region’s investment process is carried out under the principles of sustainable development, that is, without endangering the future of these ecosystems,” assured Rosa Elena Simeón, minister of Science, Technology and Environment.

The archipelago will begin the year 2000 with 2,600 rooms, an occupancy rate of nearly 70 percent, more than 350 million dollars in investments, and the presence of the Spanish hotel chains Sol Meliá, Tryp and Iberostar, as well as the Italian firm Ventagglio.

During the Third Convention of Jardines del Rey, held Dec 20 in Cayo Coco, sources from the Ministry of Tourism reported that two more hotel companies would soon appear on the islands: France’s Accor and the Canadian TMS group.

“The policy is to attract new markets in Europe and South America – such as Holland, Greece and Chile – to the island and reduce the summer slow season to a minimum,” affirmed Andrés González, Cuban manager of the hotel Tryp Club Cayo Coco.

Tourist development in Jardines del Rey has created more than 700 new jobs, and 44 percent of the products consumed in the keys are Cuban, 25 percent of which come from nearby Ciego de Avila province.

Cuba as a whole will end 1999 with a total of 1.65 million visitors – 50,000 less than officials had predicted, but 16.5 percent more than in 1998.

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