Rebeca Jara. Director of Promotion in Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism

Q: What’s the difference between the 13th Tourism Convention and the previous editions?

A: The objectives of this year’s event, scheduled for May 5 to 8 at the Plaza America Conference Center in Varadero, the number-one tourist circuit in Cuba, are focused on the promotion of the Cuban destination, the fostering of business contacts, the reward to the best tour operators and the attraction of professionals directly linked to incentive travel and events.

The main difference this time around is the boosting of specialized modalities and the presentation of new tourist products as part of the promotional onslaught to shore up the marketing activity. These options mapped out by the entities do offer a more diversified Cuban product as a whole.

Q: What are those modalities?

A: The convention’s slogan is Cuba: A Compelling Destination. We’ll underline the country’s conditions to develop the modality of congress and incentive, as well as ecological tourism and scuba diving.

Q: Who will attend the convention?

A: Those who eye Cuba as a destination. Around a thousand foreigners from the hotel sector, tour operators, travel agencies, airline representatives and execs from international organizations have already confirmed their participation. I can mention, for instance, the attendance of the Guatemalan Tourism Institute, a delegation from the Cayman Islands, plus a special presentation of Aruba as a tourist destination.

We’ll also have a representation from the Caribbean Hotel Association and the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the latter with a stand of its own. We’ll see more confirmations coming in with each passing day.

Q: Is there anybody in particular you’ll like to mention?

A: It’s hard to single one out. We’ll have lots of presentations, Cuban personalities and foreign celebrities who are going to dictate lectures on very interesting topics. There’ll be a special presentation of the tourist circuit of Holguin that earlier this year witnessed the grand opening of Cuba’s largest hotel, the Playa Pesquero.

We’ll also see the cultural potentials that Cuba has to offer. That’ll be the premiere of the TURARTE show entitled Cuba Si, Canta y Baila. And it’ll also be the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Palma Real Hotel in Varadero, a resort owned by Horizontes Hotels and run by Spanish group Hotetur. There’ll be tours to other sites across the island nation.

Q: Will multi-destination get some media hype in the convention?

A: We’ll continue working on multi-destination in a way that tourists coming to a particular area could get to know two or more countries. Our ministry has long sketched out a strategy whereby we exchange contacts with other nations in the region, just like one Caribbean tourist package. This is an issue that comes up time and time again. We’ll continue enhancing our air connections to ease access between Havana and other regional cities because sometimes that’s the biggest hindrance in the area. In that sense, we’re expecting some major personalities from the sector to exchange views and join hands in outlining interesting programs for a number of nations. We’ve got in the offing a combined project between Cuba and the Cayman Islands as far as scuba diving is concerned.

Q: What about before and after the convention?

A: There’ll be some major meetings that we’ve called related events, such as the Meeting of Tourist Transportation Entities and Professionals, a gathering sponsored by France’s Federation of Tourism Technicians and Scientists, and the International Seminar on Tourist Publicity.