MIAMI, United States. – In spite of the largest surge of COVID-19 contagions reported in the island, regime diplomats this Thursday began promoting Cuba as a tourism destination at the International Travel Fair in Guangzhou, China, one of the salient fairs in the Asian-Pacific region, according to Cuba’s official news agency Prensa Latina.
According to the publication, this August 5th, Cuba promoted “leading offers and tourism potential” as part of the 29th annual fair, to take place virtually beginning this week and until next October.
“It will be an opportunity to exchange information with travel agencies and promote Cuba as a tourism destination, especially our health tourism,” stated Denisse Llamos, Cuba’s consul in Guangzhou.
The diplomat also added that the Cuban government plans to establish relations with local market companies and explained that the Cuba booth included images of the main attractions that the tourism industry has to offer, including the most important cultural, historical and landscape locations.
According to Prensa Latina, the Guangzhou International Travel Fair is known as the window to the world tourism industry in the region, with participants from 55 countries featured in it.
Prensa Latina also states that “Cuba aims to become the entry gate to the Caribbean for the increasing number of Chinese citizens who are looking for vacation alternatives in other parts of the world.”
“To that end, the country aims to duplicate in the short term the number of travelers that arrive in the island, and is doubling its efforts to promote here its singular attractions and its potential for different forms of recreation that involve Nature, culture, nautical activities and health.”
Prensa Latina revealed that the Cuban government had signed a memorandum-of-understanding with the Chinese agency Ctrip –the second largest online travel agency in the world- in November 2019, to include on its platform Cuba’s main travel destinations.
It also broke the news about Havanatour Group’s plans to open its first official rep office in Shanghai, for the purpose of attracting Chinese tourism to the island.
In spite of the surge of contagions affecting Cuba, the Ministry of Tourism continues to promote the country’s tourism destinations in the foreign market.
Recently, the Spanish hotel chain Meliá Hotels International, showcased Cuba as a safe tourist destination, as the company’s publication on social media shows.
On its Twitter account, Meliá calls on potential clients to enjoy “fun-filled vacations under Cuba’s sun,” while some of the company’s directors recommend facilities such as Meliá Varadero to those potential clients.
On that occasion, that promotion soon sparked reaction on social media.
“Seriously? People in Cuba are dying in hospital corridors and in their homes, the health system collapsed, there are no medications, and you insist on the same message. I understand the need to make money, but in God’s name, this is not the time to be promoting vacations in Cuba,” an Internet user identified as Ali, questioned.
The British portal Our World in Data, at the prestigious Oxford University, indicated on July 5th that Cuba was the fifth country by population with the most positive coronavirus cases in Latin America, and fifteenth in the world with respect to the rate of coronavirus infections.
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