Hit by blackouts Cuba’s tourism industry now braces for Trump

With winter nights drawing in throughout North America, Canadian “snowbirds” – residents who flee their freezing temperatures for sunnier climes yearly – are planning their annual journeys to Florida or the Caribbean.

Traditionally, Cuba has been massively common amongst Canadians, drawn to the pristine white sands of seaside resorts like Varadero.

They fill the void left by Americans cautious of the journey restrictions imposed on them underneath the persevering with US economic embargo of the most important island within the Caribbean.

Figures present that almost one million Canadian vacationers visited Cuba final yr, the highest nation of origin for guests by some margin.

As such, a latest resolution by the Canadian tour operator, Sunwings Vacations Group – one in all Cuba’s main journey companions – to take away 26 motels from its Cuba portfolio is a blow to the island’s struggling tourism trade.

Sunwings took the choice after Cuba endured a four-day nationwide blackout on the finish of October, attributable to failures with the nation’s aging energy infrastructure.

This was adopted by one other nationwide energy reduce final month, when Hurricane Rafael barrelled its method throughout the island, worsening an already-acute electrical energy disaster.

A 3rd countrywide blackout then occurred on Wednesday, 4 Dec, after Cuba’s largest energy plant broke down.

“Cuba has had some volatility in the last few weeks and that may shake consumer confidence,” Sunwings’ chief advertising and marketing officer, Samantha Taylor told the Pax News journey web site final month.

“There are incredible places to go in Cuba,” she harassed, eager to stress that the corporate isn’t pulling out of Cuba altogether. “But we also recognise that if clients are a little uncomfortable, we need to give them options.”

Specifically, that concerned drawing up an inventory of what they known as “hidden gems” – various vacation locations within the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Colombia.

The implications for Cuba are clear.

With tourism now the island’s principal financial motor, and the primary supply of overseas foreign money earnings after remittances, that an essential tour operator is pointing its clients in the direction of different nations’ seashores over crumbling vitality infrastructure is an actual concern.

“Our message to Canadians is that tourism is one of the economy’s priorities,” mentioned Lessner Gómez, director of the Cuban Tourism Board in Toronto in an announcement. “The Ministry of Tourism has been preparing for the winter season to deliver better services, uninterrupted supplies, a better airport experience, and more and new car rentals.”

While Cuba’s tourism company tries to ease fears concerning the extent of the electrical energy blackouts, few can deny that these have been extraordinarily troublesome months on the island. Hurricane Rafael was solely the newest storm to hit Cuba in a frenetic Atlantic hurricane season wherein extra highly effective and extra frequent storms are the brand new regular.

Of course, extreme climate is an issue throughout the Caribbean. But for Cuba, there are different problems in play.

Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House and his alternative for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, stand to make life much more difficult for Cubans than it already is.

“This is probably the Cuban Revolution’s hardest moment,” says former Cuban diplomat, Jesús Arboleya. “And unfortunately, I see nothing on the horizon whatsoever which allows for an optimistic view of the future of US-Cuba relations.

“Donald Trump has handed US policy towards Cuba to those sectors of the Cuban American right who have essentially lived off anti-Castro policies since their origins.”

Mr Arboleya provides that Marco Rubio, presently a US Senator for Florida, is the main voice amongst them. He is a Cuban American lengthy against the communist authorities in Havana.

His mother and father had been Cubans who moved to the US in 1956, three years earlier than Fidel Castro seized energy, however his grandfather fled the Castro-led flip to communism on the island.

“People are horrified by the idea of another Donald Trump presidency. It spells real trouble,” echoes Cuban political commentator and editor of Temas journal, Rafael Hernández.

Current US coverage in the direction of Cuba is “somewhat schizophrenic”, he argues.

“On the one hand, the State Department facilitates support to the private sector, and [pushes for] economic changes in Cuba. But on the other hand, Congress and Senate seem to freeze any advances on those reforms.”

The expectation is, nonetheless, {that a} future Secretary of State Rubio will coalesce the US’s Cuba coverage round a single thought – most stress on the island by tightening the already-harsh sanctions.

Cubans concern that would imply the suspension of business flights to Cuba, and even the closure of the US Embassy in Havana, which was formally reopened in 2015 after many years of frosty relations.

If applied, such steps can be intentionally designed to additional hurt Cuba’s floundering tourism commerce, the purpose to hit the communist-run nation when it’s down. Tourist numbers to Cuba have virtually halved for the reason that excessive level of practically 5 million guests through the Obama-era détente with Cuba.

Between 2015-2017 US guests flocked to the island underneath extra relaxed journey restrictions, eager to expertise a rustic that had lengthy been denied them. Around the identical time, the Cuban authorities launched into a serious hotel-building spree, assured that demand would stay robust over the subsequent decade.

However, there adopted a double blow to Cuban tourism from which it hasn’t absolutely recovered. First, the Trump Administration rolled again President Obama’s engagement insurance policies, after which the Covid-19 pandemic despatched the trade into freefall.

With lots of these motels now registering a lot decrease occupancy charges than initially predicted, and actual difficulties in offering the five-star buyer expertise as marketed amid the blackouts and shortages, some query the technique of placing so many eggs within the tourism basket within the first place.

“Why has Cuba invested 38% [of government funds] on average over the past decade in hotels and infrastructure connected to international tourism, but only 8 to 9% on energy infrastructure?” asks economist Ricardo Torres on the American University in Washington DC. “It doesn’t make sense. The hotels run on electricity.”

Even with all the present challenges, most guests agree that Cuba stays a novel journey expertise. The cliches – traditional automobiles, cigars and mojitos – nonetheless attraction to many, whereas others favor to journey the island absorbing its historical past, tradition and music.

Yet as tour operator Sunwings’ resolution to step again exhibits, some vacationers are discovering it laborious to understand Cuba throughout its vitality disaster, particularly if it’s about to be exacerbated by a hostile administration – and Secretary of State – in Washington.