Cuba will host the 42nd edition of the FitCuba 2024 International Tourism Fairscheduled from the 2nd to the 5th of next month at the Jardines del Rey hub, in the keys north of the province of Ciego de Ávila.
The main commercial exchange of the local leisure industry returns to that beautiful location with more than three decades of successfully venturing into the business and its agenda plans to promote the major destination: Cuba; initiate or finalize ongoing negotiations for the coming seasons and seek a closer approach with the Latin American and Caribbean markets.
Another key point of the meeting is to seek greater air connectivity so that traveler flows grow and the country can finally witness the takeoff of the industry without chimneys in the current calendar.
According to the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), until March of this year, 809,238 tourists have been received, a figure that represents 107.5 percent (%) of that registered in the same period of 2023, when 56 arrived. thousand 807.
Canada, with 399,272 international visitors; Russia (66,887); United States, (46 thousand 717); and Germany, (22,097); These are the territories from which the highest number of deposits come, and the Cuban community abroad also stands out, with 75,386, all in the last first quarter.
A more recent piece of news, released on his account Cuban.
The FitCuba 2024 headquarters ranks as the fourth region of recreational development due to its hotel capacity (behind Havana, Varadero and Holguín). Cayo Coco, together with its neighbors Guillermo and Paredón Grande, make up a triad of small paradise islands, known by the generic name of Jardines del Rey.
During the annual balance of the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur), its head, Juan Carlos García Granda, confirmed that until December they propose to exceed the three million mark, reverse deficiencies, offer higher quality products and services, and encourage demand.
“The projection for this year is to continue growing,” said the source itself, who specified the closing statistics for 2023, with about 800,000 more visitors than in the previous stage.
In an appearance at the Round Table, the Minister in turn said that among the challenges that affected the rise of this sphere were the effects of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the US government; as well as the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries supposedly sponsoring terrorism, which has had serious consequences on collection and payment flows, and on access to bank credit.
The aspirations of the sector go through the current situation of war – nothing hidden – that the nation suffers with an increasingly tougher siege, facing media intoxication and soft blows aimed at denigrating its image, which stands out for its natural benefits, security, stability politics, citizen tranquility, trained employment and the warmth of Cubans, ideal hosts par excellence.
Its power to recover despite the stages of crisis makes the sector a lifeline that, despite not yet achieving the expected takeoff, continues to be the second contributor to the Gross Domestic Product and the third for its monetary collections, only behind the professional services and remittances.
The host domains of the tourist meeting can be reached by air, as it has an international airport on Cayo Coco itself, due to its marinas and the causeway – stone path over the sea – 17 kilometers away, with an incomparable view and that It connects the north of Avila from the town of Turiguanó to the south of the pole.
It exhibits vast hotel and non-hotel infrastructure (its housing potential amounts to 33 thousand rooms); At the same time, one of its essential challenges is the conservation of the environment of these islands given their status as a biodiversity reserve, considered unique in Caribbean properties.
In that area of Cuban geography, more than 250 endemic and native species have been located, including 28 varieties of reptiles and more than 200 of birds.
The Gran Marena Cayo Coco Hotel will host the FitCuba activities and is preparing for such an event, with a particular focus on the nautical and non-hotel areas, according to branch authorities.
In the surroundings of the property, the adjacent coastal dunes are being rehabilitated, an important task led by the Center for Environmental Engineering and Biodiversity (Ciba) of the territory, as part of the provision of scientific-technical services aimed at promoting its sustainable advancement.
During 2023, in turn the second most relevant sun and beach destination in the area (after Varadero), Ciba worked to rescue the vegetation cover on the mounds of Playa Pilar, declared since 2010 as a Protected Area with category of Featured Natural Element. Located east in “Guillermo”, it constitutes the largest dune system in the country and the insular Caribbean, with heights that vary between 13 and 16 meters above sea level.
The perception of the future development of the northern keys of Cuba for tourism was one of many accurate visions of the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro. With the passage of time, reality has given total validity to that dream since the 80s, which he always followed closely like each of his personal achievements for the advancement of his country.
Become brand, King’s gardens It is part of the Sabana-Camagüey archipelago, and its name comes from the Spanish explorer Diego Velázquez, who between 1513 and 1514 wanted to pay honor to the monarch Ferdinand the Catholic. That overseas area was also immortalized by the American writer Ernest Hemingway in the book Islands in the Gulf.
The Cuban domains constitute a sum of more than 4 thousand islands and islets that surround the green Cayman, which has become an outstanding destination for international tourism despite continued negative contexts derived from the universal and indigenous economic crisis; COVID-19 that paralyzed the world and the intensified imperial blockade, viciously persecuting initiatives in favor of national tourism.
With diversified products for the leisure industry, today it is preferred for its sun and beach programs, at the head of other vacation modalities that include cultural tourism, events and conventions, health and quality of life; nautical, nature and, of course, its keys, among other offers.
