Tourism Fair 2012 in Cayo Santa Maria
HAVANA TIMES — The 32nd international tourism fair — “FITCuba 2012” — opened on Tuesday on the Santa Maria Key beach resort located in the center-north of the island, reported the Prensa Latina news agency.
This year’s event has three focuses: Argentina as the country of honor, family tourism and beach resorts in the Cuban keys (where this year’s fair is being held in order to entice participants such as tour operators, managers and experts in this sector).
The conference is being attended by representatives from major tourist-issuing markets such as Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, France, Germany and the UK.
Some 2.9 million tourists are expected to travel to Cuba this year, while the hope is to soon receive about three million visitors annually and to establish tourism as one of the most important areas of the national economy.
the ministry of tourism doesn´t seem to realize that it is not so much how many tourists you get but how much you can sell them, basura y productos lujos. the malaysian numbers for sales of luxury products to tourists: 25 million tourists, $5 billion in sales and malaysians don´t do it very well. cuba is getting nearly 3 million tourists/year now. if cuba could do as well as malaysia that would be an added $600 million/year. i believe $1 billion/year is possible with the right product range and in the right places because position is important too. the profits would be about $500-700 million depending on which products were sold and which sold best. santiago de chile airport is fairly good but panama city airport is better for it has a wider range of products but the range of products in panama city airport could be improved too. in india, luxury products are sold in luxury hotels which is logical. products sell best when they are in the face of the consumer as much as possible. for example, bondi beach, sydney has 5 beachwear/swimwear/sunglasses/sunscreen lotion shops. bangkok has bus shopping tours. there are not enough shops in havana or varadero worth visiting on a bus shopping tour. the luxury shops sell low to mid range stuff to cubans. clothing, watches, jewelry and handbags. there is little tourists want at the prices charged.
hongkong and bangkok are hot and humid but they sell a lot of suits and business shoes.