The Cinderella of the Caribbean is an apt description of Cuba. The US trade embargo and socialist regime were the ugly sisters which stifled economic growth and left the poor but beautiful island languishing in the doldrums.
Thanks largely to foreign investment in hotels, the island has now been catapulted into the limelight and, in true fairytale fashion, it has proved to be the belle of the ball.
Statistics published by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation show Cuba is the fastest-growing Caribbean destination in terms of UK arrivals. It has gone from attracting just 5,000 British visitors in 1992, to a forecast of 80,000 visitors for 1999.
The immediate future also looks rosy with British Airways’ new weekly flight into Cuba, which started last month, sure to attract new business.
Panorama is one of several operators reporting increased bookings on the back of the new service which flies from Gatwick to Havana via Nassau in the Bahamas. Sales and marketing director Martin Young said: “We’ve had a very good take-up on our BA allocation and expect it to bring in a different type of client who would maybe not consider a charter flight.” He pointed out that the supplement to upgrade from a charter flight to a scheduled BA flight was only £49.
BA’s new service is good news for everyone, it would seem, except flag carrier Cubana which has five flights a week into Cuba from Gatwick and Manchester. However, tour operators are adamant that many potential BA customers will switch to Cubana when they see the price difference.
According to specialist operator Havana tour UK, Cubana’s low-season fares are up to ú120 cheaper than BA’s while the difference in high season is as much as £300. Cubana has the additional selling point that two of its five flights a week are direct and non-stop to Havana; and it serves several other popular Cuban gateways direct from the UK.
Since last May the carrier has been flying direct to the offshore Cayo Largo – promoting itself as the ‘all-inclusive island’ – and from this week, it will launch a new service to Ciego de Avila in the centre of the island.
This new international gateway will service the colonial city of Trinidad on the south coast and the up-and-coming resort areas of Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo off the north coast of the island. (See story on page 47).
The Cuba Tourist Office was keen to play down rivalry between the two carriers. New UK director Max D’Ou, who took up his post in January, said there were opportunities for partnerships and codesharing between BA and Cubana’s extensive network of domestic and regional routes.
There are plans for a winter advertising campaign – possibly with BA – but according to D’Ou, the priority is compiling a computer database which can respond more efficiently to the hundreds of consumer and trade enquiries received each week.
So far so good. But Cuba is all too aware of how quickly the bubble can burst.
A recent spate of bad publicity on consumer TV programme Watchdog – mainly concerning noise and disruption from building and maintenance work on certain hotels in the resort of Varadero – has served as a reminder of how carefully Cuba needs to tread if it is to avoid the problems experienced by its neighbour the Dominican Republic.
According to the tourist office, Cuba is taking no risks. It is working very closely with the Federation of Tour Operators to ensure hotels meet health and safety standards.
Cosmos senior product manager for Tropical Paradise, David Binns, said: “A few years ago there were concerns about the quality of the Cuban product. Since we first featured Cuba in 1995 standards have improved tremendously.
“Although Cuba currently seems to be bearing the brunt of a lot of adverse publicity from programmes like Watchdog, this does not seem to be having any effect on the strong sales we are achieving.”