Minister of Tourism reiterates Matanzas’ commitment to export services.

The commitment of the province of Matanzas to fulfill its services export plan is strategic to ensure fresh foreign exchange contributions to the national economy, reiterated the head of the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR), Juan Carlos García Granda.

Summarizing the priorities of the strategic sector in the country and particularly for the territory, he reasoned on the great weight of Varadero in the monetary income from this activity, a key engine in the structure of goods and services in Cuba.

To meet the goals, it is essential that Matanzas brings to its destination the clients that will be part of the three million foreign visitors expected to visit Cuba in 2024, which must be served with quality, a category to which, he noted, absolute attention must be paid and go to the next step of certifying it.

A better attraction of the domestic market in order to meet the approved figures is a working objective in a year in which, according to the Minister of Tourism, non-compliance in this regard will not be allowed. This segment needs to be managed with all possible care and he encouraged that any initiative should support this purpose.

García Granda called to stop the labor fluctuation with actions that favor better salary remuneration, to incorporate the rooms out of order and that each entity of support and of the chain of value of the tourism, contribute to the effort that the clients choose the destiny of the destination, and that each entity of support and of the chain of value of the tourism, contribute to the effort that the clients choose the destination Matanzas, and in particular Varadero. In that sense, he considered that each visitor should leave the place pleased with the image of its products.

An intense debate awakened the recurrent issue of livening up Varadero’s nights, where the extra-hotel night proposals do not quite satisfy as expected in Cuba’s main beach resort, which is demanded the complementarity of not being just sun and beach, but to exhibit its cultural options as an added value throughout the day or to continue positioning itself as a destination for meetings, congresses and incentives.

The first secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Party, Susely Morfa González, highlighted the potentialities of a territory like Matanzas, rich in culture and exemplified the lack of a space where Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, a group that won a Latin Grammy in 2001 and very demanded by tourists from different latitudes, performs.

In this regard, the importance of the functioning of the Tourism-Culture Commission and the strategic alliances with sectors such as transportation, among the essential logistics to guarantee the sustainability of the proposals, was stressed.

At the conclusion of the working meeting, Morfa González highlighted the resilience and innovation capacity of tourism and emphasized the real possibilities of the sector to achieve better dividends this year.

Marieta Poey Zamora, vice-governor of the province, insisted on the urgency of filling the management positions and the need to build children’s houses for the care of the female labor force in tourism.

After the report on the performance of the leisure industry in Matanzas, MINTUR delegate Nastia Valdés led a debate in which Omar Bosch, director of the Islazul Varadero Agency, referred to the actions to halt the marked labor exodus in this chain, the most affected in the destination.

«In order to achieve what has been said in this balance, it is necessary to count on the workers and take good care of them so as not to affect the quality of the service. What is most affected today is the workers’ transportation, which affects the stability of the sector’s skilled labor force,» said Arnaldo Díaz Hiedra, secretary general of the Sol Palmeras Hotel’s union bureau.

Tourism must overcome all kinds of realities, especially those associated with external factors, he said. «We have the duty to sow hope and defeat the U.S. blockade against this sector,» García Granda urged.

Tourism graduate Cristian Ceballos, director of Mystique Casa Perla, shared his experiences on what must be done to achieve success and how much is gained when the client is won over before leaving the hotel, as a result of a timely response to their dissatisfaction. His facility leads the ranking of hotels best positioned for their quality in the Varadero beach resort.

At the end of the balance assembly the most outstanding collectives in various fronts in 2023 received the recognition, also accompanied by the First Deputy Minister Maria Del Carmen Orellana Alvarado and other political, governmental, Cuban Workers Central and National Union of Hotel and Tourism Workers leaders.