Cuba Plans Luxury Golf Resort to Boost Tourism

It is the island of which Ernest Hemingway once wrote: “It not only looks wonderful, it is wonderful.” It is famed around the world for its unspoiled beaches, the rhythm of its music, its staunchly communist regime and its political stand-off with the United States.

Yet today, with the ink barely dry on Fidel Castro’s resignation as president after half a century in power, Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism will announce plans to build that most capitalist of institutions –a luxury golf resort complete with multimillion-dollar villas.

A British company in which Sir Terence Conran is involved has set up a strategic partnership with the ministry to develop the first of several golf resorts on the Caribbean island. The $350 million development is being heralded as the start of a push by the Cuban Government to boost its economy through tourism.

The Carbonera Country Club Resort, which is due to open in 2011, will be developed by Esencia Hotels & Resorts. It will be the first big investment in Cuba’s leisure industry by a British company.

Esencia is part of Havana Holdings, which was set up in 2001 with the aim of turning Floridita, the cocktail bar in Havana once frequented by Ernest Hemingway, into an international chain under a franchise deal with the Cuban Government.

The resort will have a 150-room boutique hotel, a branded international spa, sports and aquatic facilities and an 18-hole championship golf course designed by PGA Design Consulting, which is linked to the Professional Golfers’ Association. It will have “at least one” D&D restaurant and a Boisdale restaurant similar to the two in London.

Esencia, which hopes to take a 75-year lease on the site after the relaxation of the ban on foreign property ownership, is also developing a chain of boutique hotels on the island.