Meliá will open two new hotels in Cuba next year, Sol Caribe Beach, in Varadero, and Meliá Trinidad Playa, in Sancti Spíritus, published this Friday the official press. The Spanish company will have 34 facilities throughout the country by 2022 and more than 14,000 rooms.
The renovation of spaces, rooms and furniture in hotels such as Sol Cayo Santa María and Sol Río de Lunas y Mares, in Holguín, has taken up the time of the company’s workers in recent months due to the “cessation of tourist activity due to the pandemic, “indicated company executives on the island.
In December 2020, Melía I quit to the management of three of its hotels on the island due to the “scarce commercial opportunities” in the tourist centers and “the operational problems faced in recent years.” In its annual report, Cuba stood out as one of the most affected markets because 60% of the facilities remained closed due to the pandemic. “This is due to its high dependence on the international market,” the company said at the time.
In addition, the Spanish chain expected that tourist demand on the island would recover between May and last June, a period in which it predicted “a rebound in the number of reservations in Cuba.” However, the reality was different, and between May and September the worst wave of covid-19 was registered in the country and the reopening of the borders had to wait until mid-November.
The Government of the Island announced that it expects to receive at least 2.3 million visitors in 2022, half the record registered in 2018
In the past week, Meliá signed an agreement with the Cuban Medical Services Marketing Company to include health “products” in their hotels. The document indicates “massages of different types, therapies associated with music, aromas and yoga, tai chi, laser puncture, guided relaxation and anti-stress programs”, which will be offered in the facilities that the company manages together with the Cuban State through a contract of management.
During the third Tourist Exchange of the Gaviota Group that is held until this Sunday in Cayo Santa María, Gabriel Escarrer, executive director of Meliá, said that his company is committed to continuing the businesses that began 31 years ago in Cuba, by becoming the first to invest in the sector within the country.
The Government of the Island announced that expects to receive in 2022 at least 2.3 million visitors – half the record registered in 2018 – and create 4,000 new rooms in the country’s hotel networks in that period.
In 2020 Cuba received just over a million visitors and in 2019 it reached more than 4.2 million. Before the pandemic, tourism represented the third official source of foreign exchange income —behind remittances and the sale of professional services abroad— and contributed about 10% of gross domestic product.
In the first half of 2021, a total of 114,460 international travelers arrived in the country, representing 870,739 fewer visitors (11.6%) than in the same period of 2020, according to the latest data published by the National Statistics and Information Office ( Onei).
Most of the visitors came from Russia – with 72,304 travelers – which has become the main source of tourists to the island during the covid-19 pandemic.
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