“Beaches, the Caribbean, mojitos and vaccines, all in one place.” Almost a year has passed since TeleSur published a video on Twitter in which it promoted Cuban vaccines and ended by asking “What do you think of this offer? Would you travel to Cuba to get vaccinated?” Two months later, Cubadebate denied that there was an official campaign promoting vaccine tourism, and that the entire population had to be immunized first, although it was not discarded that the day would come when the Ministry of Tourism offered an all-inclusive package with Abdala or Soberana.
What has happened in all this time? Officially, Cuba has not launched any tourist promotion that includes vaccination for foreigners, although any traveler who arrives on the island can access the full vaccination scheme for $ 80 or MLC (freely convertible currency) or the booster dose for 45, according to could find out 14ymedio in a call to the Cira García Central Clinic for foreigners, in Havana.
The cost is not for the vaccine, according to the worker, “but for the consultation, temperature measurement, assessment and delivery of official document with QR code” and its amount is paid by credit card or payment gateway
According to the vice-management of the leading health institution of tourism in Cuba, any traveler who wants to be vaccinated should contact the clinic that, once it has the necessary information and the length of stay that the interested party is in the country, will proceed to quote abroad to inject his dose. The tourist must provide his name and surname, passport number, date of birth and telephone where he can be reached during his visit to the Island, in addition to choosing the vaccination scheme he wishes.
The cost is not for the vaccine, according to the worker, “but for the consultation, temperature measurement, assessment and delivery of official document with QR code” and its amount is paid by credit card or payment gateway.
“With the document that we are going to give you, you can travel to the whole world except to the United States, which is the only country that does not recognize our vaccines,” says the official. The European Union does not allow only the Cuban vaccine to enter its borders, since travelers must prove that they have been immunized with a serum approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or, if the State approves it, by some vaccine that has “completed the process of inclusion in the WHO emergency use list”.
At the Cira García clinic they confirm 14ymedio that there is no specific tourist package that includes the vaccine, a claim that a year ago could have worked but is now confirmed as useless. There is no knowledge that any country in the world has charged for its vaccine. All governments have offered immunization against covid-19 free of charge to their population and the biggest problem is the shortage in poor countries. While rich countries are going for a booster dose with coverage of 60% in the US and up to 90% in Spain and Portugal, in places like the Congo it has barely reached 1% of society.
Most of the countries that opened the vaccine to tourists did so at the beginning of the immunization, considering it a “luxury” to be able to go abroad to inject a serum impossible to find in the country of origin
This problem of coverage and inequality could hardly be alleviated with tourism. Most countries that opened the vaccine to tourists did so at the beginning of the immunization, considering it a “luxury” to be able to go abroad to inject a serum impossible to find in the country of origin. But one of the biggest incentives for this, in addition to health, is obtaining a covid passport that allows you to move around the world. Cuba, which is still waiting for the approval of the emergency use of the WHO for Abdala and Soberana, has failed in this as much as in waiting for the States to charge for vaccinating. Any vaccination tourism strategy was doomed to failure.
But not only this sanitary approach fails. Tourism data in Cuba continue to cause displeasure. If in October it was already very visible that the Dominican Republic was eating the land of the Island, with the data for November, the month of reopening of the borders, they still do not give good signs. In the first 11 months of 2021, Cuba received only 6.5% of the tourists who arrived in the same period of 2019.
The Dominican Republic, for its part, recovered 73% of the tourists it received between January and November 2019. Only this past month, the country had 424,560 foreign travelers, a very high figure –1.7 times of all the tourists who came to Cuba in the 11 months between January and November 2021, points out the economist Pedro Monreal – although somewhat less than last month, when he achieved the record with 443,018 visitors.
Mexico estimates that, despite the barrage of cancellations from the US and Europe due to the impact of the omicron variant of covid-19, it will end 2021 with 12.5 million tourists
Another of the island’s direct competitors, Mexico, revealed this Monday extraordinary figures that show the recovery of the tourism sector in the North American country. Mexico estimates that, despite the barrage of cancellations from the US and Europe due to the impact of the omicron variant of covid-19, it will end 2021 with 12.5 million tourists, not excessively below the 16 million in 2019.
Andrés Aguilar, from the Quintana Roo Tourism Secretariat, said that occupancy levels of 80% and 90% are expected for these dates. “We expect a very positive winter season for the destination, from December 18 to January 2 we anticipate the arrival of 1.3 million visitors,” he added.
In Cuba there are no official forecasts, but at the beginning of this month, the Chinese agency Xinhua explained in a report the commitment of the Cuban authorities to open more hotels despite the bad economic situation. At text, and very in passing, a startling fact was revealed. The Cayo Guillermo Resort Kempinski hotel is preparing to reopen to tourists from next January 3 and its projection was to have an occupancy of 10% for that month. And the omicron still hadn’t exploded.
________________________
Collaborate with our work:
The team of 14ymedio He is committed to doing serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time becoming a member of our journal. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.
