Officials from the Gaviota hotel group informed Canadian tour operators about the opening of new hotels in the coming months on the island, noted the Travel Week portal, which specializes in tourism and travel.
The site reports that the Gaviota group is working with great interest in the destinations of Havana, Varadero, Cayo Santa María, and Holguín, without neglecting the other tourist areas of Cuba.
They also argued that Cubans work with 16 foreign hotel chains, which means that 80% of the rooms in Gaviota hotels are managed by hotel companies outside the Caribbean country.
"The main objective of Gaviota is to develop new products on its properties, specifically for its Playa brand. New modules will be implemented for families with children, with special rooms for them and Premium levels," the information details.
Similarly, they talk about a focus on the young audience, emphasizing a development with the Canadian company Blue Diamond Hotels, with whom they are organizing specialized music festivals and launching a new hotel brand called 'Resonance', which will feature music and entertainment for the younger generation in one section, and relaxation and wellness in the other.
In this regard, Cuban officials mentioned that the new hotel openings will mainly take place in Havana and Holguín.
They said that at the end of this year, the Metrópolis Hotel, the second managed by Kempinski in the city, will open its doors in the Cuban capital, featuring 219 rooms.
It is also planned to inaugurate before the end of 2024, the second section of Muthu Havana, which will have 515 rooms and will be called Muthu Tower.
The controversial Hotel K23, the skyscraper owned by the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA) and managed by Iberostar, with 594 rooms, will open its doors on November 20, four days after the 505th anniversary of the city. The announcement of its inauguration has been met with indignation by the public, due to the depressed economic and social reality of Cuba that contrasts with what is being projected in that facility.
In Havana, they also hope to open the Corona Hotel next year, managed by the Turkish hotel chain ATG. It is a five-star establishment with 147 rooms.
At the Customs of the Port, a new hotel called Real Aduana will be inaugurated at the beginning of next year, in the new cruise terminal, at the site where the Cuban customs offices were located in the old port.
And in Holguín, it is expected that by the end of next year, a yet unnamed hotel will be inaugurated in Ramón de Antillas.
Likewise, officials warned that to improve service and customer offerings, Gaviota plans to open training schools across Cuba to train its workers with the best teachers on the island.
With these projections for the opening of new hotels on the island, a trend is being implemented that has become common, which is one where more is invested in tourism than in social programs, without seeming to care about the impact it has on the quality of life of Cubans.
During 2023, using the most recently completed year as an example, the State bet on tourism, despite the crisis in the Public Health system that directly affects people, and the shortages in the Education sector, where children do not even have enough notebooks to study.
Additionally, during the first semester of that year, hotel occupancy was extremely low, and seven out of every 10 rooms were empty, according to official sources.
"Statistics confirm the persistence of a very distorted investment structure in Cuba, where a third is concentrated in activities primarily revolving around tourism," said economist Pedro Monreal about this situation.
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