(Havana) The Cuban authorities have ceded the tourist activity of one of its islands in the south of the country, Cayo Largo del Sur, to the Canadian hotel group Blue Diamond, the company announced on Wednesday.
Posted at 5:26 p.m.
“As a (hotel) chain, we are going to take full responsibility for the cayo in terms of operations, marketing, not only with the eleven hotel proposals that we have, seven villas and four hotels, but also with the extra- commercial zones on the beaches, Rafael Villanueva, commercial director of Blue Diamond Cuba, announced on Cuban state television.
At the beginning of July, a new runway was inaugurated at the international airport of Cayo Largo del Sur, whose control tower has been rehabilitated, with the aim of reviving tourism on this 37.5 km island.2.
Direct flights from Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa and Halifax will be operational in the coming months. Canadians are Cuba’s largest visitors.
Blue Diamond, which has 10,900 rooms in Cuba, is gaining ground in the island’s tourism sector. The group is now behind the Spanish group Melia which, with 30 hotels, has the largest number of establishments in the country.
The Canadian group will also take over the management of the Paseo del Prado hotel in Havana, previously managed by the French group Accor. The establishment, renamed Royalton Habana, “will be our flagship in the capital,” Villanueva said.
Tourism, the main driver of Cuba’s economy, has plummeted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with one million international visitors in 2020 and 356,470 in 2021, according to official figures.
Before the health crisis, 4.1 million tourists had visited Cuba in 2018, including one million Canadians. For 2022, the authorities expect 2 million foreign visitors. They were 564,847 until May.