Cuba plans to build more than 30 hotels, which will provide 10 thousand additional hotel rooms; create 26 new amusement parks, including ten golf clubs; build 50 small and medium-sized hotels for family vacations on an all-inclusive basis. More than $160 million will be spent on the development of leisure infrastructure not related to hotels - construction of golf and yacht clubs, water parks.
The minister assured that the creation of new joint ventures in the tourism business is part of the Cuban government's strategy to attract foreign investment. 'Such joint ventures will make it possible to build new hotels, reconstruct existing ones and bring them up to international standards, as well as invest in golf clubs, entertainment complexes, water parks,' said Manuel Marrero.
The Cuban minister said that new rules for customs and passport control at Cuban international airports will come into effect in June. The main goal of the innovations is to minimize the time a passenger spends at the airport and simplify the documentation procedure. Cuban authorities intend to take measures to reduce the cost of air travel, which is higher than in other Caribbean and Latin American countries.
According to Cuban authorities, the number of tourists who visited Cuba last year was 2.2 million. Canada leads the list with 600 thousand people. Tourism brings about $2 billion to Cuba's budget annually and is one of the main sources of state income.
Based on materials from RIA Novosti.