The Cuban tourism group Gaviota SA and its hotel partner Russian Cosmos signed an agreement for the management of the Sierra Cristal Hotel, a five-star facility in the province of Holguin.
With the entry of the Russian company into the Cuban market with the administration of the Sierra Cristal by Cosmos Hotels, it was finalized during the Forum Tourism of Moscow, according to a report from the Tass agency.
Alexander Biba, president of the Russian group, highlighted that this is the first international hotel resort that the company will manage.
Russian tourists, the reason for the increase in visitors to Cuba
“International projects are part of the long-term strategy of the Cosmos Hotel Group. We are currently evaluating promising markets and negotiating new resorts and urban hotels that will operate under the management and franchise agreements of Cosmos,” he added.
The Sierra Cristal is a hotel complex of the highest standard with 640 rooms. It was built in 2024 about 25 kilometers from the Antilla municipality, on the Holguin coast, and just over 100 kilometers from the Frank País International Airport, in the eastern territory.
Cosmos Hotel Group is one of the subsidiaries of the Sistema investment group, and participates in the Tourist Territories Forum (FIT-2025) that took place until this Thursday at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, in the Russian capital.
innovative proposal
The first signs about the possible incursion of Russian capital into the island’s tourism sector emerged during the celebration of the last edition of the Havana International Fair (FIHAV 2024).
After an exchange with Ilya Zubkov, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce of the Russian Federation, the head of the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) of Cuba, Juan Carlos García Granda, declared that “the time was very close” to see the first hotels in Cuba built and managed by companies from the Slavic nation.
Russia could build and manage hotels in Cuba, according to tourism minister
“Tourism in Cuba has experience in the development of joint ventures, particularly in the field of foreign investment,” the minister emphasized, adding that “several existing hotels could be transferred to the management of Russian travel companies.”
García Granda also mentioned on that occasion that during his visit to Moscow some Russian investors assured him that they would be willing to “build and also manage hotels on the Island.”
Strong commitment to the Russian market
The emergence of Russian companies in the Cuban tourism market could boost the island’s Government’s plans to exceed the threshold of 200,000 visitors from that country, amid the complex situation that the sector is experiencing and its uncertain possibility of recovery.
Between January and August, a total of 1,259,972 international visitors arrived in Cuba, which represents 21.64% less than in the same period in 2024.
Tourist arrivals remain in the doldrums, after a decline of more than 21% in August
According to figures published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), it seems very unlikely that the aspirations of reaching 2.6 million tourists by the end of the year will be met.
To “buffer” the unfavorable projections, Cuba has maintained a strong commitment in recent years to the Russian market, currently the third issuing country to the island and the one that grew the most during 2024.
During the first three months of that year, nearly 67 thousand Russian tourists visited Cuba, which represented an increase of 34 thousand compared to the same period of the previous year.
To sustain this trend, the Cuban authorities deployed a series of incentives, which ranged from the acceptance of Russian MIR bank cardswith more than 20 thousand payment terminals in hotels, shops and restaurants throughout the country, to the increase in air connections with direct flights by Nordwind and Rossiya companies from Russia to main destinations such as Havana, Varadero and Cayo Coco.
