CUBA saw a 53% increase in British visitor numbers during the first seven months of this year compared to the same period of 1998, making it one of the fastest growing destinations from the UK.
By the end of July a total of 48,800 Britons had travelled to the island, and the Cuba Tourist Office said it was confident of reaching its target of 80,000 UK visitors by the end of the year.
UK director of the Cuba Tourist Office Max D’Ou Lam said: “I think we will reach our goal without any problems, especially as operators and airlines are telling us that they are having a good performance this year.”
Cuba’s popularity has been helped by the launch in April of a weekly flight by British Airways from Gatwick to Havana, and by Thomson’s decision to reintroduce the island to its programme in May.
Almost all the major operators now feature the island, but there is concern in some quarters that its infrastructure will not be able to cope with the rapid increase in visitor numbers.
Ironically, British Airways’ tour operating arm has refused to add Cuba to its programme because it is not satisfied health and safety standards on the island are high enough. It has even suggested Cuba could experience the same problems as the Dominican Republic whose tourism industry was badly hit by an outbreak of food poisoning two years ago.
The tourist office said it was surprised at BAH’s comments as the Federation of Tour Operators declared itself satisfied with hotel standards after visiting the island in January this year.
“All Cuban hotels have adopted UK standards in health and safety and these have improved a lot in the last year,” said D’Ou Lam.
He insisted the island had learned from the mistakes made in the Dominican Republic, adding: “I certainly don’t accept that what happened there could happen in Cuba.”
Other operators pointed out that almost all the hotels they feature in Cuba are managed by international hotel chains such as Sol Melia, Golden Tulip, SuperClubs and Sandals which have the same standards on the island as elsewhere.
Head of long-haul planning at Thomson, Phil Boggon said the response from customer satisfaction surveys for May and June had been excellent, and the incidence of sickness among clients was very low.
Sales and marketing manager for Travelcoast’s Captivating Cuba programme, Chris Mansell, said:”Building work in Varadero can be slightly intrusive but itis a year-round resort and they have got to do itsometime.
“In terms of standards, it’s not the Seychelles or Barbados but the major hotel groups have realised that they need to tweak some areas. The level of complaint we get about the food and service is actually very low – less than 2%.”
Journey Latin America is so convinced that the island’s infrastructure has improved that it has reintroduced tailormade holidays after a four-year break.
“It used to be really difficult to organise tailormade trips because communication in Cuba was so poor but since tourism has taken off the infrastructure has got better,” said a JLA spokesman.
Cuba specialist Interchange which has featured the island for several years said it was confident it could cope with mass tourism.
Director Gordon Burnett added: “The scope for increased business to Cuba is huge because the island has been under-developed for so long.”