2014 has been a tough year for travel companies dealing with Cuba. Firstly, the shift away from centralized hotel bookings has seen Cuba's MINTUR tourism ministry ratchet up direct sales of hotels through Amadeus and locally managed hotel portals. The second step in this move will see those operating websites purporting to be […]
Stephen Purvis (british) Amado Fakhre (british) Vahe "Cy" Tokmakjian (Canadian) Jean Louis Autret (French) Sarkis Yacoubian (Canadian) The above names are just a few of Cuba´s prominent investors from the 90´s who´s liberty, assets and future in Cuba has been taken away over the past 24 months. Some say it's not a […]
Behind the polished image of Cuba´s MINTUR (ministry of tourism) and their recent Autentica Cuba campaign lurks a sinister black market, or so we are told. Seldom do professionals from the travel industry in Cuba speak out and, less so when they are foreign travel professionals located on the island. Historically, fearful of […]
For an economy increasingly reliant on tourism as its only real source of income, numbers leaked this week from MINTUR (Cuba´s tourism ministry) do not bode well for the winter season. Consumers in Cuba´s single largest market, Canada, appear to have learnt from Cuba´s "panicked "price slashing of late October 2010 and are […]
Local operators are suffering from a distinct lack of automatics cars. Better said, they are nonexistent. Why one would ask? Well, as of January 2010 a new rule was quietly introduced where automatic cars are only bookable through approved agencies such as Havanautos or Cuba Car To combat this change and loss of business, […]
Cuba´s economy, fundamentally dependent on tourism, continues to ruin relations with Travel professionals and foreign operators located on the island or worldwide. The primary motives being the dreaded "stop sales" emanated by Cuban firms and tourist enterprises to their foreign partner's months before the next high season approaches with apparently no sales concluded for […]
In an unusual twist right out of a badly written novel, Sol Melia denied access to the internet on camera to two Cuban citizens this past Sunday. In itself a remarkable decision by the Spanish chain with more hotels in Cuba than any other. The video shows a Melia employee alleging that both Etecsa and […]
Tell other travelers what happened: Bad room? No room? Cleanliness? Bad staff? Thefts? Maid service? Pricing? Phone bills? Expensive Room extras? More?
