Outbound

Cuba invites investment from India for tourism projects

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.