Anupama Sushil - New Delhi
The Cuban officials for tourism are now looking at concentrating on
India owing to its huge potential. "Cuba is looking at India as a
potential market in the Asia region after countries like China, which
generates the highest numbers of tourists to Cuba from Asia, followed by
Japan and Australia," said Mayra Penichet, marketing director, from the
ministry of tourism, Republic of Cuba. She added that there is more in
common between India and Cuba than any other country.
In 2006, a few travel agents from India were invited to Cuba to
encourage further business interaction between them and the Cuban
counterparts, and this process of bringing travel agents and tour
operators closer was being supported by the national tourism agency of
Cuba that acts as a facilitator for such business opportunities, and
though the interactions are not taking place at a very fast pace,
interest is definitely building up.
Cuba boasts of numerous tourism products beginning with museums, beach
and nature. Thus, under the new projects, all regions of the country
would be promoted equally as the variety of products spreads across
regions. The Cuban economy is fast recovering and attracting tourism
from India will surely help in this regard. The Cuban government,
Penichet said, was very actively looking at attracting investments and
investors from India for its ten current tourism projects.
The projects are to be based on construction of accommodation, theme
parks, nautical sport bases, and an amusement park, among others at
different sites. The investment could be in any form - be it monetary;
the investor handling the administration and operation of a project or
any other role that the investor and the main party negotiating settle
upon. It proves that there is a huge opportunity that exists for Indian
companies in investing in the tourism sector in Cuba.
It is estimated that around 200 million dollars are needed for
refurbishment of existing installations, and 170 million dollars for
investing in new hotels and tourism activities, besides requiring
investments in roads construction, water supply and water recycling.
No comments:
Post a Comment