Only 90 miles off the coast of Florida yet seemingly out of reach for most Americans, Cuba just got a whole lot closer. Travelucion an online Cuba travel & Media Company, will begin offering online media promotion of packages from Florida based travel agents across its 432 Cuba focused websites in the coming […]
Controlling a gigantic portion of Cuba related internet traffic has just become a unique commodity that the Cuba digital media corporation Travelucion is relishing. The company's colossal group of 432 multilingual web properties seemingly dominating each and every internet search. Everything from the life of enigmatic American writer Ernest Hemingway in Cuba, to […]
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 […]
Vacation review giant Tripadvisor today announced the world's highest ranked all-inclusive resort. What makes the accolade so important is not only that it's the Cayo Santa Maria Royalton Hotel but, that the American company finally decided to give Cuban customer service a thumbs up and the prestigious title it deserves.The Cayo Santa Maria Royalton […]
Not a surprise to many in the travel industry, Fastbooking and its Cuban branded Cuba Travel Network have ceased trading earlier this week. Attempts to contact Fastbooking for comment at both their New York and Paris offices have proved unsuccessful. It is unclear why Fastbooking - Cuba Travel Network will no longer provide Hotel Reservations […]
For over two decades Cuba has been one of the worlds few destinations where in order to receive a hotel confirmation, one had to prepay the whole stay, days, weeks or months in advance. Some visitors having prepaid thousands for a hotel stay in Cuba six months or more in advance. But not […]
A lot can happen in a decade, both in politics and business. During my initial visit to Cuba, Tour & Marketing was flying high, its staff a picture of happiness and success. After talking with Elba Castillo, their sales manager and Eddie Lubbers hotel sales manager, about the company's internet travel business, […]
This all started with Senator Marco Rubio who recently slammed the Obama administrations travel openings in the United States senate. Here is an excerpt of his floor speech: "When I look at this stuff, you know what I want to say? Come on, man! This is about promoting democracy and freedom in Cuba? […]
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 […]
As the Christmas season approaches many of you are looking for Car Rental in Cuba. We´ve compiled this from recommendations at Trip Advisor, Lonely Planet, Trivago, Amadeus. Car Rental in Cuba from USA Here is a short comparison of some of the Cuba Car Rental Companies who offer online reservations. Transtur Rent A Car - […]
From humble beginnings in France during the early nineties on the Minitel programming format, followed by several printed magazines in Europe in the late 90´s, the web development firm Digital Panorama S.A. created Cuba´s first online Gift Store along with Cuba´s first travel booking website GoCubaPlus. After later developing a whole host of websites for […]
Officially putting the "Viva Cuba" campaign to rest, the Cuba Tourist Board unveiled their new global marketing campaign " Auténtica Cuba " In addition to the launch, attendees welcomed visiting Cuban vice-minister, Maria Elena Lopez, as well as introduced Cuba's new director, Ruben Jimenez. Jimenez, who will be based out of the tourist board's […]
Irina Bokova of UNESCO met today with Old Havana´s infamous front man Eusebio Leal. Few Cubans have lasted so long in such a post and the reasons why Mr. Leal has outlasted most of his peers (and critics) is that the job he has done and is doing is truly remarkable. Whether it […]
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, […]
Ever so quietly the Cuban government began a campaign to lock foreign travel agencies registered inside and outside Cuba out of the lucrative Cuban American travel market. From early November agencies reported abruptly canceled services for clients arriving in Havana´s terminal 2. Initially the motive was that their receptive agents in Cuba, the likes of […]
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 […]
If America's spy satellites are trained on Cuba at this very moment, they're likely to reveal local tourism officials puffing away on celebratory Cohibas. The reason? While tourism is down big-time across the rest of the Caribbean, tourist arrivals to the Communist isle are up 3.1 percent, year to date. Compare that with […]
In 2000 the buzz word was the "Chinese are coming" as Cuba´s Ministry of foreign Investment (MINVEC) signed deal after deal with Chinese groups. The Marina Hemingway Chinese restaurant being the first joint venture used frequently to court other such deals. Then there was the development of the sea front in the Marina Hemingway where […]
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 […]
