Cuba woos tourists from Qatar, region

Cuba woos tourists from Qatar, region

11:00 PM - 24 June 2013

By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter



Cuba is to launch a series of campaigns to introduce its tourist

locations to the Mideast, Cuba's ambassador to Qatar Ernesto D Plesencia

told the Gulf Times yesterday.



Speaking to this newspaper alongside a meeting with a group of senior

tour and travel professionals at his official residence where embassy

officials gave a presentation of the tourist attractions of the

Caribbean nation, Plasencia said Cuba is now "more aware than ever

before" about its growing potential in tourism and recent campaigns to

attract tourists years have been remarkably encouraging.



The ambassador described the tourists sector as the "locomotive" of

Cuba's economy over the last two decades.



Compared to the figures of international tourists' arrivals in Cuba of

2011, there was a 4.5% increase last year as more than 2.85mn people

visited his nation last year, the ambassador said, adding that the

target for this year is 3mn. "More than 1mn international tourists have

already visited Cuba in the first four months of the year and the number

is rapidly growing with each passing day," said Plasencia.



"Our focus now is to attract people from the GCC to visit Cuba, which

has a historic connection with this region," he said, adding that

prevailing hotel and other tariffs in his country would be very much

"affordable" to visitors from countries like Qatar.



There are so many things in Cuba that could attract the attention of a

visitor from the region even though there is no direct air connectivity

to Havana from the region, he explained while expressing the hope that

there would be connectivity with Cuba in coming years. Now the main

connectivity to Cuba from this region is provided mainly by KLM, the

Dutch carrier.



He spoke about some of the major tourist attractions in Cuba, including

excellent healthcare facilities, heritage, leisure, beaches,

hospitality, adventure sports, natural forests and fishing, among others.



Embassy Second secretary Raul E Madrigal Cardenas and cultural and press

attaché Nubia Cherician Gonzalez also spoke on the tourist potential of

their country.



Source: "Cuba woos tourists from Qatar, region" -

http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/357366/cuba-woos-tourists-from-qatar,-region