Cuba’s Tourism Minister Says Russians to Build Hotels

The tourism minister admits that the target of 200,000 Russian tourists arriving to Cuba will not be met this year.

By 14ymedio

HAVANA TIMES — The forecasts have not been met and the Government has publicly admitted that the goal of attracting 200,000 Russian tourists this year to Cuba will not be met, although the admission came only on the Tass news agency and in Russian. By September 30, almost 60,000 more were needed to reach the official objective, a pipe dream, as this newspaper had already warned, as it also pointed out the impossibility of achieving the 2.7 million tourists expected.

Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Garcia postponed stating the target to 2025 during statements made during his recent visit to Moscow in which he said that there are Russian businesspeople interested in building and managing hotels on the island.

“I think we are very close to having the first hotels built by Russian businesspeople in Cuba. In addition, several existing hotels could be transferred to management by Russian travel companies,” said the minister, who referred to the island’s experience in developing joint ventures, suggesting that this will be the formula if the forecasts are met.

Cautiously, García Granda did not want to talk about the areas of the Island where these projects would be developed, nor give a date or any other clarification. “I will not give details; we will wait until it materializes. But there are already projects in the study phase, which are close to beginning execution.”

After a long history of unfulfilled promises in the short, medium and long term, any precaution is insufficient. Not in vain, in March 2023 there was already talk for the first time of building a hotel specifically focused on Russian tourism. It happened during a visit to Havana by Boris Titov, president of the Cuba-Russia Business Council and the Kremlin’s trusted man, in which several new businesses between both parties were announced, including the opening of a wholesale store.

In November of that year, during the Havana International Fair (Fihav), the information was confirmed and the store was named for the first time, Rusmarket, a joint venture with the state-owned Cimex that would sell food first and textiles, appliances or cars later. The store had two possible locations, Yumurí (corner of Belascoaín and Carlos III) or Cuatro Caminos, in Havana, and its opening was scheduled for March 2024.

A year later, at the most recent Fihav – suspended halfway due to Hurricane Rafael – the Russian agency Sputnik spoke with Alena Varkentin, director of Rusmarket. She said that a small store in Old Havana, named Florida, will open in March 2025, after the contract was signed in January 2024. In the meantime, the announced shopping center would wait until June or July.

It is one more example of the countless businesses, investments and financial developments that arrive late, badly or never. Other cases include the installation of a branch of the Russian bank Novimbank, which was delayed for more than a year since the approval of the permit; the announced creation of a binational Russian-Cuban bank that has been talked about for several years, or the long wait for the use of Mir cards, announced repeatedly for two years until they arrived.

Other projects were left in limbo, such as the Russian refinery on the Island, of which there has been no news since Jorge Piñón, an expert from the University of Texas, described it as a “fairy tale,” and the much talked about modernization of Cuba’s railway infrastructure by the Russian Railways Union (RZD).

This was one of many projects cancelled in 2020 by the Russians, who made their displeasure known to Havana over what they called a “Cold War mentality that was out of place in post-Soviet Russia.” “They are difficult negotiators, I won’t hide it, the mentality of the past weighs on them constantly,” said Yuri Borisov, then deputy prime minister of Russia and in charge of economic relations with Cuba, in an unforgettable interview.

The railway project was revived this year by the deputy director of RZD, but skepticism haunts any announcement coming from a country that distrusts not only the Cubans’ ability to pay, but also a system in which the law still does not favor private initiative as the Russians seek.

The reluctance of Russian businesspeople was made clear last week when, during the FIHAV, Tatiana Mashkova, director of the Committee for Economic Cooperation with Latin American Countries and vice president of the Russia-Cuba Business Council, admitted that until now there is only one Russian company registered in the Mariel Special Development Zone. “This is a challenge and a request to Russian companies: think about the possibilities that Mariel offers,” she encouraged, before speaking of future projects, especially in logistics, although it remains to be seen, once again, whether they materialize.

If the idea of ​​building Russian hotels were to go ahead, it would, however, be a great novelty on the island. To date, only the French company Bouygues had participated in this type of work in Cuba, through joint ventures with the Cuban State, which provides the labor for its military construction company (the Almest real estate company and the Union of Military Constructions), but without ownership of what is built.

Meanwhile, official announcements continue. This Tuesday, the official press announced the creation of a joint training center between the National Research University of Energy Institute of Moscow, of the Russian Federation, and the Cuban State Electric Company, whose purpose is “to create new capacities to train highly qualified personnel in the energy sector,” which will be of little use as long as the regime fails to retain the professionals.

Also on the island is Alexander Viacheslavovich Kurenkov, the Russian Minister of Emergency Situations, who will meet with senior officials from the Ministry of the Interior and the National Civil Defense General Staff. The Russian arrives with something of the usual, an – unknown – donation for the Cuban Fire Department that follows the one made last year, consisting of 21 firefighting vehicles.

Translated by Translating Cuba.

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