By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, May 19 2003 (IPS)

In today’s hard-hit global tourism industry, it is becoming more important to be able to advertise a destination as an area free of problems like the SARS epidemic or terrorism threats than to promote natural and architectural attractions.

The strategy has been working, at any rate, in Cuba and other Caribbean island nations, and the Caribbean may well be the region whose tourism sector best withstands the upsets caused by terrorist attacks, the war on Iraq, and SARS, said the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).

Not a single case of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) has been documented in Cuba, Cuban Tourism Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz told the press at the closure of a regional tourism convention held this month in the resort town of Varadero, 140 kms from Havana.

Local health authorities have provided similar reports, giving assurances that all the necessary measures have been taken to detect cases of SARS and prevent an outbreak of the disease which, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), had killed 643 people worldwide by Monday, out of a total of 7,864 cases.

According to local observers, a centralised government health system like that of socialist Cuba can be especially effective at times like this, because epidemiological measures can be applied at all levels, without depending on the whims of private medicine.

The precautions that have been taken in Cuba are surveillance of passengers for possible SARS symptoms on Cuban aircraft and in airports and all tourism installations, including those owned jointly by the Cuban state and private foreign interests.

After the Sep. 11, 2001 terror attacks in which airliners full of passengers were used as bombs against the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, global tourism, already weakened by an international economic slowdown, took a nosedive.

Caribbean islands immediately began to play up the ”safety” aspect, marketing themselves as safe, tranquil destinations free of terrorism and other violence.

But until November of last year, the results of that campaign were still uncertain, noted the secretary-general of the Association of Caribbean States, Norman Girvan.

By the beginning of this year, however, tourism in Cuba, as in neighbouring Caribbean island nations, began to see clear signs of recovery from the post-2001 slump.

By Apr. 30, 767,601 tourists visited Cuba, 19 percent up from the same period in 2002. The main sources of visitors were Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Britain and Mexico.

Some 250,000 Canadian tourists visited Cuba in the first four months of the year, 42 percent more than in the same period in 2002. There were around 10 flights a week between 15 different Canadian cities and seven Cuban airports.

But the global tourism industry continues to face swings.

The SARS epidemic, the first cases of which appeared last November, has caused more damage to a number of destinations in Asia than the terrorist attack on the Indonesian island of Bali last year, in which 200 people were killed, the secretary-general of the World Tourism Organisation, Francesco Frangialli, said this month.

Arrivals were way down in March in the countries hit hardest by SARS, especially China – where 5,236 probable cases have been reported, including 289 deaths – and its special administrative region of Hong Kong, as well as Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam.

The disease, which is caused by a highly contagious and deadly virus and is characterised by flu-like symptoms, including high fever and respiratory difficulties, is believed to have originated in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Frangialli added that SARS is having a harsher impact on the airlines than the U.S.-British war on Iraq, which was declared on Mar. 20.

”Moreover, the reality of the epidemic is being compounded by its intense coverage by the media, which has led to a veritable wave of paranoia in certain countries,” Frangialli said in a communique.

He said the paranoia is affecting Asian destinations not seriously infected with SARS, such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand, almost as much as heavily- hit areas like China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Cases have also appeared in Europe, as well as Canada and the United States. In Latin America, the WHO reported two cases detected in Brazil and one in Colombia, both involving travellers who flew in from Asia.

The Caribbean so far has escaped the new scourge and its impact on tourism flows. Countries like Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico have posted statistics that are stronger than or the same as those seen prior to the post-Sep. 11, 2001 crisis, said Fernando Abreu, CTO assistant director of marketing.

As well as those three destinations, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Barbados have continually renovated and updated their tourism campaigns and attractions, a policy that has also had a favourable effect on the subregion, said Abreu.

In addition, Aruba’s tourism sector has posted three to four percent growth since the start of the year, said the country’s Tourism and Transport Minister Edison Briesen.

The CTO is reviewing a marketing plan designed prior to the war on Iraq and to the modifications adopted as the SARS epidemic has spread.

”We are preparing ourselves before the crisis hits,” said Abreu during the Tourism Convention in Varadero, which was held May 5-8.

According to Ferradaz, Cuba’s tourism sector has rallied due to factors like the diversification of attractions and destinations, an increasing array of eco-tourism initiatives, and success in drawing visitors from a wider number of regions, as well as measures like the authorisation of circulation of the euro, the European Union currency, in some tourist centres.

Cuba also aims to attract more travellers from Russia and Scandinavia, as well as from nations like Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, whose citizens may not feel completely comfortable visiting the United States due to closer surveillance of Arabs and Muslims since the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks.

Creating routes between China and Cuba is another challenge faced by Cuba’s Tourism Ministry, since the Asian giant recognised Cuba as an authorised tourism destination this year.

Ferradaz stressed the potential positive impact on the local economy of being able to attract even a tiny proportion of the numbers of Chinese tourists who take pleasure trips every year.

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