The photos of the Zaza hotel do not lie: broken glass, walls about to collapse and landfills at every step make lodging impractical. Rough in design, the old icon of socialist architecture in Sancti Spíritus is falling apart and the Ministry of Tourism has given its answer: it is willing to invest 80 million to rescue the hotel. Of pesos, he clarifies, not of dollars.
The authorities have only disbursed, for the moment, 20 million, destined to “recover” the swimming pool -to which they placed slabs-, a modest bar and several bathrooms. The repair started on the wrong foot, as it had a deadline for the first week of May and it is still a long way to go before it is finished.
The delay moves away a second –and hypothetical– lot of pesos: 26 million that, according to promised Manuel Díaz Riverol, investment specialist of the Ministry, will be used in other “aspirations” of Zaza: the restoration of the games room, the discotheque, the cafeteria and other recreational spaces.
The official press broadcasts the frustration of dozens of former guests who, in the 70s and 80s, lived through the “splendor” and “majesty” of the concrete mass of the Zaza. Located, yes, in an enviable natural enclave, the hotel could never aspire to the luxury of facilities for foreign tourism, but, at least, nationals could stay in their rooms without fear of a wall collapsing or discovering a colony of insects.
The official press conveys the frustration of dozens of former guests who, in the 70s and 80s, lived through the “splendor” and “majesty” of the concrete mass of the Zaza
With the pandemic, the hotel ended up becoming an isolation center for health personnel, but even before suspending all recreational activity, it offered a “limited operation” and served to accommodate athletes, state workers and some clients.
Now the goal is to “push” the Zaza until it reaches at least three stars. According to the official press, the international application Tripadvisor assigned the establishment a humiliating score of 2.5 and the criteria of the guests could not be more devastating.
“The actions are divided into three stages and began with the recreation areas, to then move on to the gastronomic areas and, finally, the housing floor,” calculates Damaris Gutiérrez, deputy director of operations at Islazul, the group in charge of managing the hotel. Unrepaired for 20 years.
The biggest challenge will be to fix the 124 rooms at the Zaza, although Riverol has already warned that the Ministry will only give money to repair half. The 80 million total budget will also have to be enough to repair the lobby, the restaurant and some outdoor areas, with the help of some MSMEs of which he did not reveal the name.
But “erasing so much deterioration requires not only million-dollar budgets, but also large deficit resources in the country and qualified labor,” the newspaper itself diagnoses.
Roberto Vitlloch, the architect who heads the Sancti Spíritus Conservator’s Office, believes that solving the Zaza problem is rescuing “the architecture of the Revolution,” which he attributes to being “fast, sustainable, and efficient.” “This system was so good that it was an innovation for the problems the country had at that time,” Vitlloch theorizes.
Roberto Vitlloch, the architect who heads the Sancti Spíritus Conservator’s Office, believes that solving the Zaza problem is rescuing “the architecture of the Revolution.”
The newspaper Escambray he exhausts all euphemisms to move the authorities. He alludes to the “luck of lethargy” in which the property finds itself, calls for its “progressive resuscitation” and asks the leaders to account: “Will the Zaza hotel, once again, be in the crosshairs of the Ministry of Tourism?” they ask.
The answer, according to the authorities themselves, is negative. Sancti Spíritus is not experiencing its best moment as far as tourism is concerned. The ministry planned that the most important destination in the province, Trinidad, would arrive this year 295,528 travelers. However, Minister Juan Carlos García Granda was blunt: “The city does not sell enough as a tourist destination,” saidand visitors only stay an average of 2.2 days there.
The Topes de Collantes complex, in the process of being declared a National Monument, does not seem to be gaining attraction either. The Kurhotel Escambray fails to come back in the number of customers and presents the area as a privileged setting for tourists to understand “the history of the fight against bandits” in the 1960s.
“Unfortunately, even if we try, we will not be able to finish such a complex file in 2023,” said Claudia Guzman, a specialist at the Office of the Conservator.
However, neither the unpromising numbers of visitors nor the demands of the people from Sancti Spiritus will be an obstacle for the inauguration, next October, of the hotel Melia Trinidad Peninsula, a luxury colossus with 401 rooms, seven bars and seven restaurants. In contrast to the powerful budget – this time, in euros – destined for this property, the 80 million pesos offered by the Ministry of Tourism to Zaza sound, more than an investment, alms.
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