The island of Aruba will be filled with sounds of soul this coming Memorial Day Weekend. For the first time, Aruba will host the annual Savoy Soul Beach Music Festival on May 21st-26th which will blend together musical and comedic performances.

On Friday, May 23rd, Aruba will welcome back popular comedian/actor, Sinbad, to headline the festival’s comedy night. Recent Star Search winner, Horace HB Sanders, a new comedy sensation, will also be performing that night.

Beginning May 15, Spain-based company Occidental Hotels will run Gaviota-owned Miramar Hotel in Havana that up to now was in the hands of Accor, a French chain.

From that date on, Mr. Guillermo Guerra will be at the helm of the lodging facility’s front office.

Horizontes Hotels has officially opened the Palma Real Hotel, a 466-room four-star facility leased to Spanish group Hotetur.

Horizontes’ marketing director Maria del Carmen Orellana told Caribbean News that over 70 percent of the chain’s rooms has undergone an all-out refurbishment, and this is definitely putting the Cuban group back in the market’s top tier.

Cuba closed the first quarter of the ongoing year as the number-one Caribbean destination among Canadian, Italian and Spanish tourists, and finished a hefty runner-up for German travelers, two positions that make clear the island nation’s coming of age as far as tourism is concerned.

Air France has just set up shop in Varadero as the Tourism Convention is now underway in that famed Cuban beach.

The goal of the French airline’s new office in the largest tourist circuit of the island nation is to provide service to tour operators and ease plane ticket sales. Air France has been flying to Cuba for over twenty years with four weekly flights landing in and taking off from Havana’s international airport.

A 371-seat 330-200 Airbus will this month join Cubana de Aviacion’s fleet to connect Havana with the cities of Madrid, London and Paris.