The Cuban economist Pedro Monreal has carried out an analysis of the recent report published by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) on tourism in Cuba in 2023, which has generated controversy for several reasons.
One of the most striking aspects of the report is the low hotel occupancy rate, which stands at 25% for “tourist entities.”
In its messageMonreal warns “it is higher than the rate of 15.6% in 2022, but it is very low and is a fact to consider when questioning the high hotel investment in the country.”
As is known, the occupancy rate is a percentage that reflects the number of rooms reserved at a specific time and one of the most important indicators of “success”.
Regarding the employment rate and investments in the sector in Cuba, the expert himself pointed out in November 2023:
“As long as tourist investment is a thing of “the big scene”, despite the drought of tourists, and agriculture depends more and more on a “localism” without resources and that works with extra-economic codes, there will be a string of “conjunctures” and development will be out of reach.”
LOW TOURIST OCCUPANCY IN CUBA
Another point that has generated debate is the absence of information expressed in foreign currency in the report, despite the fact that tourism is one of the main sources of hard currency income for Cuba. “It is not that difficult to provide that information,” he considered.
Exchange rate inconsistencies
However, what he found most “interesting” is the “strange” way in which the official exchange rate (1 USD = 24 CUP) is handled in the ONEI statistics.
Income of more than 118 billion CUP would be equivalent to 4,922 million USD, but this figure is not credible as foreign currency income from tourism, he stated.
In this sense, he specifies that “if the 1:120 rate were adopted, the 118 billion CUP would be equivalent to 984.5 million USD as gross income from tourism”, which is a “more realistic figure.”
THEY DEFEND INVESTMENTS IN TOURISM IN CUBA
Although the statistics speak for themselves, Cuba defends investments in the sector.
In May 2020, the first vice president of the Viajes Cuba business group (which includes the Havanatur, Cubatur, Viajes Cubanacán and Ecotur agencies), Pilar Álvarez Azze, declared on the theme that “we continue to build the future and the future belongs to our people.”
Likewise, the professor and expert in Tourism, Dr. José Luis Perelló, said to the national press that “it is an international practice and that in Cuba few buildings are built in relation to the world stage.” Also, he announced that the projection for 2030 is 95,000 hotel rooms in Cuba, and 28 percent would be located in Havana.
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