Cuba plans to build 108,000 new rooms by 2030 to accommodate tourists

Cuba plans to build 108,000 new rooms by 2030 to accommodate tourists
According to reports from government-sanctioned Cuban media outlets, the
new construction projects also will include "other non-hotel activities
such as marinas and golf courses."
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
staff@InCubaToday.com

Cuba plans to build some 108,000 new rooms by 2030 to accommodate
tourists, as part of the National Plan for Economic and Social
Development, according to delegates gathered for Cuban Communist Party's
7th Congress, which ends Tuesday, news agency EFE reported.

The plans were unveiled by Manual Marrero, the island's minister of
tourism, who announced that potential locations have already been
identified for the future facilities. According to reports from
government-sanctioned Cuban media outlets, the new construction projects
also will include "other non-hotel activities such as marinas and golf
courses."

Marrero said an investment program would be launched alongside the
planned construction.

"We cannot make the mistake other countries have made that, with new
development, old hotels are cast aside," Marrero was quoted as saying in
Granma, the Communist Party daily. "Tourism has a multiplier effect and
the sector has the capacity to promote development of other areas of the
economy to create productive linkages."

He added that for Cuba, tourism serves as a "strategic sector that
eventually would become a locomotive of the national economy."

The planned new tourist accommodations are part of an economic opening
endorsed by Cuban leader Raúl Castro, EFE reported.

Since 2011, the nation has opened more than 10,900 new hotel rooms and
rebuilt another 7,000. Additionally, more than 14,000 rooms are now
available for rent in private homes, a sector experiencing rapid growth
due to high demand.

The number of tourists visiting the island is at an all-time high, with
3.5 million visitors in 2015, a "boom" that coincides with the thaw in
relations between Washington and Havana and an easing of U.S.
restrictions on travel by Americans to the island.

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Source: Cuba plans to build 108,000 new rooms by 2030 to accommodate
tourists | In Cuba Today -
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