Matanzas/In the province of Matanzas, the only place that has seen the flow of tourists and the revenues of local businesses is not Varadero. “Tourism is going wrong everywhere,” confesses a worker of the Velasco-Louvre hotel complex, in the headquarters, who assures 14ymedio that 75% of the rooms are empty and the customers who arrive “are almost all Cubans.”
“Without counting a loose Russian, a couple of Canadians and, occasionally, a Chinese, most of those who stay here are workers of a company in agreement with Cuba or sailors with ships anchored in the port,” says Liudmila. However, he states that employees and managers do “what you can” to ensure that their clients have a good stay.
If you go to the hotel’s review page in TripAdvisor, explains Liudmila, the comments range from clients who claim to have lived a wonderful experience to those who swore not to set foot in the Velasco-Louvre. The hotel maintains a relatively high assessment, of 4.3 stars, and that is explained, according to the employee, because “workers are often incited by the bosses to put high qualifications of the hotel under labor pressure.”
The hotel maintains a relatively high assessment, of 4.3 stars, and that is explained, according to the employee, because “workers are often prompted by the bosses to put high qualifications of the hotel under labor pressure”
However, none of that will bring to the Yumas Back, Ironiza. That is why the establishment must adapt to the times. “A ‘Cuban afternoon’ were invented and only national clients and the relatives of musicians who entertain the activity are attended. It is a Cuban afternoon to show Cuban culture to Cubans,” he mocks.
Liudmila also does not believe that prices for stay play in favor of the hotel. “A room comes out in 70 euros this season, while in a rental house with better conditions it may not reach $ 35. The individuals in the city win the pulse,” he confesses.
While it is true that hostels are often better than state hotels, the mass disappearance of tourists does not stop hitting individuals and have had to adapt to replace them with Cuban audiences.
“Right now we have guests, old clients who are often come, who will be for two months since their visit is for religious reasons,” he tells 14ymedio Dayana, 25 years old and who alternates work in her parents’ hostel with her use in an ornamental plants store. According to religious tourism, it is in vogue, and it is the emigrated Cubans who practice it most.
Mostly, he explains, these are people who already practiced santeria in Cuba and, when they left, they did not lose contact with their “sponsors.” As soon as they can return to the island to make offerings to their deities or to become holy. Others travel simply because these rituals are cheaper on the island than, for example, in Miami. “I even met a family who, after living many years in Canada, traveling frequently to make offerings, decided to take their saint there. Before the mother -in -law venerated them, but as soon as they decided to take it out, they also put the images in the mattles and take them out. To the saints emigrate,” he reflects.
/ 14ymedio
Dayana and her family do not practice santeria, but their hostel is nestled in a neighborhood where many profess the Yoruba faith and, when Canadians and Europeans began to scarce, they saw an opportunity in religious tourism so as not to lose their hostel. “My aunt manages everything in the United States with Airbnb and we receive customers here. Only in rare cases a friend who works in a hotel in Varadero recommends us to international tourists, although that does not happen for a long time. The clients we have are regular and return because they have had a good service, that is clear,” he presumes.
Instead Ana, another owner of a hostel located in the distribution of churches, has developed different strategies to keep afloat. In addition to being in the beach area, the woman has taken the saying “the eye of the master fattens the horse” and there is not a single point of the management of her rent that does not pass through her hands.
“As owner, I know better what the client needs and we are always trying to facilitate the stay in our hostel. Here, if the guest wishes to have dinner even if it is not on the list of services, it is done for an additional cost a dinner, so that the visitor has the possibility to choose Ana.
Attracting foreigners in the middle of the current crisis is a fairly complex task, but after your business survived the toughest years of the Covid-19 Pandemia
Attracting foreigners in the midst of the current crisis is a fairly complex task, but after its business survived the toughest years of the Covid-19 Pandemia, the matanage resists letting the hostel in which he has put all his effort and money disappears. “We have added the laundry service and we offer breakfasts whose cost is included in the price of the hostel, which does not exceed 30 dollars. For national customers, which are not very frequent, we even offer a reduction or some free service.”
Obtaining the ingredients for the kitchen and the rest of the inputs to keep the hostel in conditions and pay good attention to travelers is undoubtedly a problem for Ana. However, the matanage takes the difficulties with sports spirit: “It is already 20 years working in this world and we have our tricks. We are so tight but we live.”
The experiences of Dayana and Ana, however, are not the same that have lived many particular hostels, who with the shortage and fall of tourism have been shipwrecked. Nor would the state hotels, in which there would be more resources, have been airing.
Near Havana and with the most important tourist enclave in the country just a few kilometers, Matanzas lived a hotel boom more than a decade ago. Then it was planned to restore three hotels in the historic center: the Velasco and the Louvre, which were abandoned and ended up becoming a single establishment of the chain charm, and the two friends, an old quarter shop. To the project was also added to the Paris Hotel, in Pueblo Nuevo.
For each of these premises, a theme was foreseen: the Afro-Cuban, China or Spanish culture, which exploited both the Asian imprint in Matanzas and the religion-that is the alley of traditions, dedicated to the African inheritance-, with the celebration of the colla, ancient party in honor of the Virgin of Monserrate, Patroness of Catalonia. It was also wanted to evict families who lived in the quarters that would be remodeled, but no homes were achieved to move them and internal problems ended up throwing the plan.
Only the Velasco-Louvre came to open its doors and maintains some of its splendor, after being restored in 2023, but does not even retain the cultural theme that was thought for him years ago.
