AREQUIPA, Peru – “Party-loving and relaxed” is how Canadian company Blue Diamond Resorts describes its new hotels on the island, which will seek to attract visitors after opening at the end of the year amid a Cuban tourism panorama marked by stagnation.
The new hotels, points to a note The company’s Resonance hotels are being created under the Resonance brand in Varadero and will only be accessible to guests over 18 years of age. Under the name Resonance Blu and Resonance Musique, both will be 4-star hotels with an all-inclusive plan.
According to the Canadian company, the facilities will be the first on the island to be located within the same resort, although with completely different concepts.
On the one hand, the Resonance Musique (555 rooms) “is aimed at active guests looking for entertainment, unbridled fun and parties.” In contrast, the Resonance Blu (480 rooms) will be “suitable for those who are in the mood for relaxation, meditation, yoga and a healthy lifestyle.”
The new hotels will open after the takeover of the Memories Varadero Beach Resort hotel complex, which is already undergoing a large-scale renovation, and are scheduled to open on November 1.
According to the note, the hotel chain Blue Diamond Resorts plans to have nine hotels under the Resonance brand in operation in Cuba over the next two years: two, respectively, in VaraderoCayo Santa María, Marea del Portillo (in Granma), and on Santa Lucía beach (Camagüey), plus one in the Cayo Cruz complex, which should be ready by 2026.
Over the past five years, the Canadian company has been the largest and fastest growing company in the Cuban archipelago, reaching the point of exclusively managing the sun and beach destination of Cayo Largo del Sur, located on the Isla de la Juventud.
Blue Diamond Resorts currently operates 45 hotels, with more than 11,000 rooms, in nine Cuban resorts, with management businesses with state-owned companies Gaviota, Cubanacán and Gran Caribe.
Tourism in Cuba stagnates
Despite the mediocre performance of the tourism sector in Cubathe regime and its associated foreign companies continue to invest large sums of money in the sector. Meanwhile, hunger and poverty are latent in the country as never before, and landslides are frequently in the news, leaving dozens of families without homes.
Tourism in Cuba does not rebound. The Island received a total of 1,680,485 visitors during the first half of 2024, according to official figures from the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
Although this number represents an increase of 101.1% compared to the previous year, it barely reflects an increase of 0.9% compared to the same period in 2023. This figure shows that the tourism sector Cuban remains far from achieving the regime’s goal of attracting 3.2 million tourists in 2024.
The negative trend has continued, with the third consecutive month of decline in the arrival of visitors international. Last June, only 134,948 tourists visited the island, compared to 154,590 in the same month last year.
To reverse this negative trend, the Ministry of Tourism is focusing on improving direct air connections to the Island. In contrast, Caribbean tourist destinations such as Punta Cana and Cancun have experienced a significant rebound in the number of visitors post-pandemic, reaching historic levels.
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