Cuba's push to attract tourists to beaches considered benefit not burden for Florida

Cuba's push to attract tourists to beaches considered benefit not burden
for Florida
Posted: Yesterday 2:24 p.m.
By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

VARADERO, Cuba — With the waves of the turquoise Florida Straits behind
them, Brissia Bezada and Melissa Figueroa pose for photos they take with
smartphones and a selfie-stick.

Both from California, the women traveled far to this long, narrow
stretch of beach along Cuba's northern coast to vacation with a friend
in a place they have long wanted to see.

They are not alone. As the clouds pass and the sun beams down, more
tourists flock to the beach from nearby resorts, from Havana and from
other countries like Germany, Canada, Switzerland and Colombia. They lie
on deck chairs or towels spread out over the white Cuban sand on a lazy
afternoon. They sleep, chat, read and sip drinks from coconut shells
under a tiki umbrella with palm trees reaching high in the background.

It's vacation time in Cuba.

Cuban beaches and resorts have been a powerhouse in the country's
tourism for more than two decades, drawing crowds of Canadians,
Europeans and even some Americans searching for a Caribbean-flair
vacation. And although it's Havana where travelers struggle the most to
find a place to stay — the city's hotels and private rooms were booked
solid during the season's peak in March — the beaches also are drawing
their share of tourists.

March brought another record number of tourists, with the highest number
of travelers for any month in 30 years, according to data from the Cuban
National Office of Statistics and Information. Holy Week and spring
break typically draws big crowds, but the month also attracted tourists
to Cuba to see President Barack Obama, the Tampa Rays baseball game with
the Cuban National Team and a free concert from The Rolling Stones.

Many of those travelers spent at least some of their vacation on Cuba's
beaches, and the island hopes to draw even more visitors to its coast.
International hotel chains already operating in Cuba are talking
expansion on the beach, and that's a much needed addition to a limited
choice of hotels and resorts, many in desperate need of a face-lift that
cater to travelers seeking cheap vacations.

"Cuba continues to be a sun and beach destination, influenced by the
vacation travel packages sold by tour operators that have traditionally
commercialized Cuban tourism," said José Luis Perelló, tourism professor
at Havana University.

That's something Southwest Florida can understand, and the push in Cuba
after Obama's efforts to improve U.S. relations with the country is seen
less as a threat and more as an opportunity for Florida tourism.

Visit Florida Chief Marketing Officer Paul Phipps sees improving
relations with Cuba and the resumption of regular flights as a boost for
Florida's tourism business. Cubans will have an easier time traveling to
Florida, especially Miami, he said.

"I am not as concerned about them picking Cuba over Florida," he said.
"I think they may say, 'Let's go to Florida, and spend two days in Cuba.'"

***

Bezada, 31, and Figueroa, 33, two Mexican-Americans on vacation from
California, said they traveled to Cuba from Tijuana with an American
passport. Bezada works as a paralegal and studies law, so they decided
to visit during spring break.

"I have always wanted to come here," Bezada said.

They came for the Cuban culture, like Old Havana and its architecture.
They came for the nature of Viñales, the drinks, the traditional food.
They came to see how some Cubans create small art galleries in their
homes, and to learn how they keep old cars working. They wanted to see
the old Cuba before crowds of U.S. travelers change the country forever.

"It's like putting a film in pause mode," Bezada said of Cuba.

But Bezada and Figueroa also love the views from the beach in Varadero,
where their Cuban friend brought them. Varadero, a resort-town in a
narrow peninsula about a two-hour drive from Havana, is also the Cuban
destination for all-inclusive beach hotels. They were mostly built since
the 1990s to attract the international tourist and to generate revenue
for Cuba's struggling economy after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Some tourists eat at Xanadu Mansion, a small hotel built as a lavish
beachfront vacation residence around 1930 by U.S. businessman Irénée du
Pont, and nationalized after Castro came to power. No one plays in its
18-hole golf course that overlooks the straits, a course that offers
deals to play starting at $120 and going up to $900. At the other end of
the beach stands an all-inclusive, 490-room hotel shaped like a flower
of six petals in the style of a pyramid.

With travelers rushing to visit the island before U.S. firms arrive,
cultural, nature and city tourism are on the rise. U.S. tourists still
need an education, cultural or some other allowed purpose to visit Cuban
beaches, due to remaining travel restrictions. But international hotel
chains already on the island are betting on the coasts, planning to
expand there.

The number of Americans — excluding Cuban Americans — who visited the
island in the first quarter of the year doubled over last year's first
quarter number, reaching 73,139, Perelló said.

The tourists who visit the beaches tend to purchase all-inclusive
packages, travel with mass-tour operator programs and have middle or
lower purchasing power. But that may not be what Americans, who are
increasingly visiting the country, are seeking.

"The American, even if he visits the beach of Varadero or the Keys in
the north of Cuba, which have great beaches and hotels — with
all-inclusive regime — will prefer city, nature or cultural tourism," he
said.

***

The Varadero beach is clean and quiet, lined by bungalows and hotels
offering hundreds of rooms. There's no promenade or boardwalk along the
beach with restaurants, ice cream parlors or souvenir shops. Restaurants
can be found in the nearby hotels or a shopping center a short drive away.

This is not the future for Cuba's beach tourism envisioned by early
promoters, according to writer Rosalie Schwartz. She traces the first
Cuban tourism boom to the 1920s in an excerpt from "The Invasion of the
Tourists" included in "The Cuba Reader."

"Tourism promoters envisioned thousands of moneyed visitors who would
spend their dollars in Cuba's hotels, restaurants, shops and nightclubs,
or at the casino and racetrack," Schwartz wrote.

Investors imagined Cuba as an American Riviera, catering to wealthy and
thirsty U.S. travelers in the time of the Prohibition, Schwartz says.
The idea prompted du Pont to build mansions for himself and other
wealthy U.S. businessmen.

That boom, Schwartz writes, ended with the Great Depression, Cuba's 1933
Revolution and the end of Prohibition. But it reappeared in the 1950s,
opening the island to the masses, bringing the middle and working class
with paid vacation time and disposable income, Schwartz wrote. Varadero
lost its 20s elitism.

A new tourism surge today for Cuba could draw more visitors to the
region, including Florida. Jack Wert, executive director of the Naples,
Marco Island, Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau, said increasing
tourism to Cuba is an opportunity for Collier County.

"Overall, we are certainly excited about the possibility of tourism
opening more between Cuba and the U.S.," he said.

If direct flights to Cuba open from Fort Myers or Naples, Canadians and
others visiting the island could consider stopping in Southwest Florida,
maybe on their way back home, Wert said.

"I don't think we will lose business in our area to Cuba," he said.

Silver Airways and Sun Country Airlines have asked the U.S. Department
of Transportation to allow their commercial flights to Cuba from
Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers.

The decision on whether Fort Myer's airport will get commercial flights
to Cuba will influence Choice Aire's decision to resume a charter flight
to Havana that was ended in November, said Danny Looney, Choice Aire's
CEO. The charter flights won't resume if commercial flights are awarded,
he said.

***

Sitting on a towel at the Varadero beach, Figuera said she wanted to
travel from California to Cuba before McDonalds and Starbucks open for
business.

She and Bezada were thrilled though when they got to see Obama in March
a few hours after he landed in Cuba.

"It's something I can write down in my diary," Bezada said.

But there have been disappointments on their trip to Cuba. Their hotel
in Havana has many floors under renovations. It's difficult to find
food, so much so that Figueroa and Bezada are thinking of setting up a
restaurant that mixes Cuban and Mexican cultures.

It's easy to find tourists who complain about Cuban hotels or what's
available in the country.

The increase of international tourists, including 27,000 U.S. visitors
in March, posed a challenge to Cuba's hotel capacity, especially in
Havana, Perelló said.

Cuba's tourism sector has faced growing pains in the face a continued
U.S. trade embargo, he said, including lack of financing, inability to
buy products from abroad, and commercial and credit restrictions,
Perelló said. The normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba
could resolve those problems, bring agreements with U.S. hotel chains,
and help improve and expand the island's tourism infrastructure, he said.

Some progress is underway.

The Brazilian Odebrecht is in charge of expanding the international
terminal at Havana's Jose Marti Airport to double its capacity, which
could be used for regular flights between the U.S. and Cuba and allow a
higher volume of visitors.

Starwood Hotels already has deals to operate three hotels in Havana.

Hotel chains already present in Cuba are expanding to respond to the
demand. Spanish multinational hotel chains Meliá and Iberostar, and
travel group Globalia, which owns a hotel chain and an airline, are
expanding in Varadero.

Globalia is opening a new airport route this summer from Madrid to
Varadero that will travel twice a week, and added a new hotel in
Varadero, reaching 781 hotel rooms.

Iberostar, another chain with a big presence in Cuba, expects to open a
new 5-star hotel in Varadero this year.

Hotel improvements would be welcome by some travelers.

Ann Rhodes, 70, and Marily Asofsky, 76, are among those Americans who
visited Cuba for cultural attractions and because they wanted to see the
island before it changes. Rhodes and Asofsky, from Boca Raton, had an
afternoon free in Varadero as they traveled with about two dozen others
on a Road Scholar People to People trip. They loved the country and the
people, but the hotels, not so much.

They were supposed to spend five days at the Hotel Nacional, a flagship
in Havana. But on the second day of their stay in March, they were moved
to another because of space needs to accommodate Obama's visit to Cuba.
That hotel, they said, left a lot to be desired.

"You had to close your eyes," Rhodes said.

***

As the sun goes down, two male Cuban dancers teach salsa dancing to four
women in their early 20s on vacation from Mexico. Wearing beach clothing
and in bare-feet, the women take turns dancing without music with their
instructors on a terrace of tiles by the sea.

"You start with the right foot behind, and then the left one," said one
of the dancers.

When Ildemar Rodríguez and Osvaldo Batallan play Los Van Van, a Cuban
timba group, the girls try to follow their steps. They laugh, have
missteps, and focus on the choreography and the hip movements.

One of the friends, Atziri Pimentel, asks her teacher if he has ever
traveled abroad to perform. He says he hasn't yet.

"Well, if you want, we get married and you come to Mexico," she said
jokingly.

The friends know what they like about Cuba: its architecture and
history, yes. But also dancing reggaeton, lying on the beach, and
partying with Cuban boys.

"We are having a great time," said Karen Lara, a 23-year old psychology
student.

They have already toured Old Havana and went out to a private bar in the
city full of foreigners. They also went to a Buena Vista Social Club
salsa show where they drank mojitos, danced and sang Celia Cruz songs.

They have taken so many photos that they don't have much memory left on
their phones.

And before the sun sets, the friends leave their day on the beach behind
for Havana.

"The night is long," Pimentel tells the dancers. "We have to dress up
and go party."

Source: Cuba's push to attract tourists to beaches considered benefit
not burden for Florida -
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/local/cubas-push-to-attract-tourists-to-beaches-considered-benefit-not-burden-for-florida-30d97d32-3e16-07--379417641.html