U.S. Hotel Developers Don’t Expect a Quick Entry into Cuba

American hotel developers today are eye-balling the announced $75 million deal oil-rich Qatar has signed with Cuba, but that’s about all they can do at this time, they say.

A 50-year-old travel ban to Cuba the U.S. placed 50 years ago would first have to be lifted by the Obama Administration before any serious development plans could be undertaken, U.S. developers and marketers say.

At the same time, Cuba President Raul Castro would also have to approve travel by U.S. tourists to his country.

Even if those hurdles are met, some U.S. developers would still balk at doing business with a communist regime.

“I won’t enter into discussions with other companies that want to invest or develop there,” says Burt Cabanas, president and CEO of 25-year-old Benchmark Hospitality International based in Woodlands, TX.

Cabanas told John Walsh, a contributing writer for HotelNewsNow.com, “I won’t operate in Cuba until my family, mother and godmother, is OK with that.”

He predicts the Cuban government will move slower than its U.S. counterparts in opening the country to new hotel development because it fears the 1.5 million Cubans residing in the U.S. will relocate to Cuba and seize the land Fidel Castro took from them 50 years ago.

Cabanas says investors from Ireland and Japan already have contacted him to act as a front for developing luxury resorts in and around Cuba but he has declined the offers.