Sandra Tarafa, General Manager of Solways Russia

Sandra Tarafa is the General Manager of Solways Russia, an international holding specialized on multi-destination travel, specifically in the Caribbean and Latin American region. Solways has offices in nine countries where the largest chunk of its business operations is clustered. Its production over the past three years has been steady, with nearly $150 million and over 100 thousand passengers annually taking combined tourism packages.

What destinations are sold by your representatives?

We sell our own Latin American and Central American destinations. Latin American Solways has begun to try its hand at Western Europe, although we don’t rule out the introduction of Russia in upcoming summer editions.

You are an expert in terms of the Russian market. What do you think about the situation of this market three years from now?

The Russian market is presently trapped in the beginning of a crisis. We believe that the overhaul of the tour operation working style in Russia is going to be a key aspect to development within a three-year period. We’re going to see tour operators targeting the domestic market, but basically we’ll stand along with many international tour operators that have betted on medium and long-haul trips.

We think that problems are going to be ironed out three years from now, as a result of the financial-economic reorganization and the settlement of geopolitical conflicts that presently hit the Russian Republic. It’s a great country, with the strength, wealth and intention of leaving the crisis behind as soon as possible.

What do you make of the Russian government’s idea of having a domestic tourism, instead of external, so that the money stays in the country?
         
I actually believe that every country, not only Russia, tries to foster something like what we say in Cuba, “get to know Cuba first and then go overseas”. I think that the lifestyle of contemporary Russians has a lot to do with the need to know, be open, share experiences, colors, tastes. That’s why we’ll always have Russian tourists interested in traveling abroad.

Do you think that Russia is going through the same situation it did 10 years ago, related to the outbound rates to the Caribbean and Latin America?       

I sincerely believe that both the Caribbean and Latin America are going to suffer throughout 2015 and 2016. There is a significant charter contraction, especially to the Caribbean region; while Latin America has designed its operations with commercial flights. There is a sort of culture related to flying to Latin America only on commercial flights, except for Brazil during the Olympic Games.

The Caribbean is going to be affected in 2015 and 2016. We’ll go back to commercial flights, season charters, but the market will recover its pace. In our opinion, this time around the recovery of the Caribbean is going to begin with Cuba. We believe that Cuba can become an operation-centralizing country and a facilitator for the Dominican Republic to grow stronger, as it has also suffered an important slide related to season charter flights, and Cancun would also benefit from that possibility.

The three countries are looking forward to achieving what we have always wanted with Russia: positioning Cuba, Dominican Republic and Mexico as the favorite multi-destination choice for Russian customers.

Could that happen with the U.S. market if Cuba is not capable of taking in the volume of North American tourists interested in visiting the island, so it becomes a multi-destination?

I believe that the Caribbean alliance is very important to face any abrupt and unplanned growth of outbound travel. I think that the Cuban hotel infrastructure is going to be enhanced. I trust in the hotel investment plans in Havana, Varadero and the keys, basically, because there is a lot to be exploited, there is space to build, there are picture-perfect beaches and I’m sure they are going to be ranked within the world top ten.

My guess is that if we establish a Caribbean tourism community among Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and some representatives of the English-speaking Caribbean, we could tackle any outbound volume from the United States or any other region.

What should the Caribbean countries, which had been leaders in the head of Russian tourists for the Caribbean and America, do to foster tourism, raise quality standards and stop losing foreign currency?

It’s vital to reselect and redesign the existing product. Likewise, it would be useful to review prices, materialize the quality-price relation of the offer in the Caribbean in an effort to standardize all of the countries according to our hotel categories, especially Spanish-speaking countries, and establish a proper correlation between the price of products and services provided with excellent quality and high standards, very elitist.

I think that if we all focus our efforts in establishing a fair lineal and competitive price, instead competing with each other to gain market shares, we’ll finally have bigger and better incomes and arrival of tourists to the Caribbean region.