Osvaldo Diaz Gener. Head of the Tarara Marina (Cubanacan Nautica Affiliate)

Q- What’s the Tarara Marina all about now?

A- It is a product that’s making the rounds and is in the market. It’s been run by Cubanacan S.A. since last July. We’re now going to make a few add-ons and, of course, Cubanacan’s strength is going to make it get a good position as a charter base and that’s fundamentally what we’re going to do. Tourists could now rent boats, fishing tackles and scuba diving gear, organize boat rides and tours, as well as have access to all products related to nautical activities.

Q- What’s the main challenge ahead of you?

A- There are too many, especially for our staff. But first of all, we must try to make the marina jump ahead of the pack in the country in terms of quality service and offer.

Q- And what do you need to cope with that challenge?

A- A lot of hardworking and lots of efforts, especially in the marketing area. We also need to strengthen our offerings, find marketing formulas that could be more aggressive and more attractive to all of our markets.

Q- What are you main offers?

A- We count on a huge array of products such as sport fishing, life onboard, tours and rides along the shoreline, beach clubs, you name it. We also rely on four scuba diving centers and 25 docking piers. We recently added a new kind of offer: the nautical hardware stores. By the end of the year, we’ll open three more hardware stores and there’ll be ten of them in 2004.

Q- What’s life onboard like?

A- We’ve got this yacht, the Venetian 2, seating six passengers and with a crew of two: a skipper and a sailor. We do all the job in the waters off northern Pinar del Rio and Varadero.

Q- How does Tarara Marina make a difference?

A- We’ve set out to provide a tailor-made and professional kind of service, offer higher safety and security levels, and all this means better quality. We can’t leave any room for off-the-cuff things around here.

Q- What are your premiere markets?

A- Right now, Spain, Italy and England. We’ve got some good projects in the pipeline with the Russian and Chinese markets.

Q- You’re now hosting La Hispanidad Marlin Fishing Tournament. What can you say about it?

A- This is the tournament’s tenth edition and it’s got a very special meaning to us from a cultural, marketing and economic standpoint because it’s true that the enterprise is surely reaping benefits, but stitching cultures together is the name of the game for us.

Q- Any projects for the upcoming wintertime season?

A- Plenty of them and pretty good, by the way. But we’ll wait for their confirmation rather than talk about them too soon.