Cuba is the Caribbean’s forbidden fruit
Posted August 21, 2009 , add a comment- Worst performance for tourism
- Clues To Caribbean's Earliest Inhabitants Discovered
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- Caribbean suffers crippling impact of the global recession
- Investments pour into St. Kitts despite global economic downturn
- Ferry service soon to be a choice for five Southern Caribbean destinations
- Attracting Chinese tourists the Jamaican way!
- Tropical Storm Ana watches canceled by Caribbean governments
Aug 21, 2009
U.S. Legislation is pending in Congress that would lift the ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. Travel industry officials estimate that as many as 1 million Americans might visit the island each year.
The question is whether Cuba is ready for a huge jump in foreign visitors.
The island nation has much to offer.
The lack of development under communist rule has left parts of the country resembling a land from a time warp to the 1950s — a welcome change of pace for many foreign tourists.
Cuba is close — Havana is only as far from Miami as Boston is from New York. And the country has beaches, mountains and a rich history.
Attractions Abound
The central Cuban city of Camaguey offers travelers labyrinth-like streets, which were laid out in the 1500s to be intentionally confusing to attacking pirates.
Tourists can go snorkeling in the Bay of Pigs, or lounge on the white sand beaches along the north coast that was favored by Ernest Hemingway.
In the city of Remedios on Cuba’s northern coast, the main church was built in the 16th century. Estaban Augustin Granda Fernandez, 87, used to play the organ at the church. Now, he is the caretaker and shows visitors around the sanctuary.
He points out the timbers in the ceiling, the original Spanish tiles in the floor and the statue of the Virgin Mary, who appears to be dancing the flamenco.
Granda also points out that the statue has a bulge in her belly. It is the only image of a pregnant Virgin Mary in Cuba, he says, slapping his own stomach.
EnlargeJason Beaubien/NPR
This 16th-century church in Remedios, on Cuba’s north coast, is one attraction in the town. Although the island has no shortage of tourist attractions, some worry it lacks the necessary infrastructure to accommodate a large influx of visitors.
Roberto Maseo, who works in a dive shop in the beach town of Santa Lucia, says Cuba’s main tourist market is Canada, because of its proximity. Flying time from Toronto to Santa Lucia, or from Montreal to Camaguey, is about three hours, Maseo says.
Santa Lucia has a series of two- and three-star resorts that sell all-inclusive package vacations. Maseo calls it a value resort. Scuba-diving excursions — all equipment and transportation included — cost about $35.
Maseo is currently preparing for a shark show. “We feed the sharks. No protection. Shark is actually swimming over you, over your heads. People can actually touch them. No problem,” he says with a laugh.
Economic Benefits Of Expanded Tourism
In 2008, tourism was Cuba’s second leading source of income after nickel exports. It’s a growing source of revenue that the communist regime wants to expand.
There are plans to open 30 new hotels across the island in the next five years.
While Cuban officials say they’re not banking on Washington lifting the travel ban, hundreds of thousands of additional visitors from across the Florida Straits could pump much-needed cash into Cuba’s flagging economy.
EnlargeJavier Galeano/AP
Musicians perform for tourists at the Hotel Nacional in Havana. The historic hotel was built in 1930 and modeled after the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.
“For us, the American market is a big opportunity,” says Dario Fernandez, general manager of Hotel Melia Havana, a Spanish-run luxury hotel in the capital city.
The hotel has 400 rooms, seven restaurants and the biggest pool in Havana. It is jointly owned by the Cuban government and a group of foreign investors, and is managed by the Spanish resort chain Sol Melia.
Fernandez says about 3 percent of his guests are from the United States, but he estimates that number could rise to 50 percent without the travel ban. Last year, the hotel had an average occupancy rate of 82 percent — considered good in the business.
But there are challenges to running a five-star hotel in a communist country where ordinary citizens earn just $20 a month. For instance, the reason Melia Havana has seven restaurants is that few dining options outside the hotel meet foreign tourists’ standards. The Melia runs its own fleet of buses for its employees because the city’s transportation system is so unreliable.
American Tourists’ Historical Connection
The Hotel Nacional in Havana abounds with shared history. The Nacional was built in 1930 and modeled after the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla.
EnlargeJason Beaubien/NPR
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner stayed at the Hotel Nacional on their honeymoon.
In 1946, American mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano held a convention at the Nacional of American gangsters plotting to turn Havana into a second Las Vegas. In 1951, Hollywood stars Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner stayed there on their honeymoon.
After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he shut down the hotel’s casino and installed Soviet anti-aircraft guns along the front lawn — under which a bomb shelter, built during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, still remains.
But if guests don’t want to think about the moment the world was pushed to the brink of nuclear war, mafia gambling rackets or the clash between capitalism and communism, they can sip mojitos at an outdoor restaurant, looking north across the water toward Florida.
Jesus Noguera Ravelo, a tour guide, says Cuba’s infrastructure is not ready for a huge influx of American visitors. He notes there aren’t enough buses, rental cars, quality restaurants or hotel rooms.
“But if you ask me about the will of the Cuban people, I would say, yes, we are ready. We would like to have more exchange with the American people coming from the U.S. to Cuba,” he says.
Noguera says the American visitors who do come have much more interest in Cuban history than other tourists — in part because the two countries have such a long, intertwined relationship. He says if he tries to give Canadians or Europeans a one-hour talk about the Cuban revolution, their eyes start to roll back in their heads. But Americans, he’s found, are eager to hear about it.
“That is telling you that we have a lot in common. And we have to know each other a lot more,” Noguera says.
Worst performance for tourism
Posted , add a comment- Clues To Caribbean's Earliest Inhabitants Discovered
- Four Seasons In Great Exuma, Bahamas purchased by Sandals
- Caribbean suffers crippling impact of the global recession
- Investments pour into St. Kitts despite global economic downturn
- Ferry service soon to be a choice for five Southern Caribbean destinations
- Attracting Chinese tourists the Jamaican way!
- Tropical Storm Ana watches canceled by Caribbean governments
- Once upon a fam trip to Bimini, Bahamas ?
Aug 21, 2009
Mexico’s economy had its worst performance on record in the second quarter, hard hit by falling exports and the swine flu outbreak, according to a official statistics.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrunk 10.3 percent between April and June, compared with the same period in 2008, INEGI national statistics institute said in a statement.
Mexico appeared to be heading for its worst year since the so-called 1994 “Tequila Crisis,” when a sharp devaluation of the peso led to a seven percent year-on-year fall in GDP.
Latin America’s second largest economy went into recession in the first quarter, when GDP dropped 8.2 percent compared with the previous year.
INEGI blamed the latest decline on poor figures in the industrial and services sectors, which are closely tied to the US and have felt the full force of the economic crisis.
The economy also took a sharp blow from the outbreak of swine flu in April and May, which paralyzed many sectors, including tourism, the country’s third-largest source of legal foreign income.
Despite signs of mild recovery for Mexico and the United States, prospects for sustained improvement were still unclear.
Consulting group Bursametrica predicted Mexico’s GDP would fall 6.5 percent in 2009, with negative growth slowing down at the end of the year.
Clues To Caribbean’s Earliest Inhabitants Discovered
Posted , add a comment- Four Seasons In Great Exuma, Bahamas purchased by Sandals
- Caribbean suffers crippling impact of the global recession
- Investments pour into St. Kitts despite global economic downturn
- Ferry service soon to be a choice for five Southern Caribbean destinations
- Attracting Chinese tourists the Jamaican way!
- Tropical Storm Ana watches canceled by Caribbean governments
- Once upon a fam trip to Bimini, Bahamas ?
- Lesbians save the world, one Caribbean cruise at a time
Aug 21, 2009
A prehistoric water-filled cave in the Dominican Republic has become a “treasure trove” with the announcement by Indiana University archaeologists of the discovery of stone tools, a small primate skull in remarkable condition, and the claws, jawbone and other bones of several species of sloths.
The discoveries extend by thousands of years the scope of investigations led Charles Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs at IU Bloomington’s School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and his interdisciplinary team of collaborators. The researchers’ focus has been on the era a mere 500 years ago when the Old World and New World first met after Christopher Columbus stepped ashore in the Caribbean — and on scintillating pirate lore. This rare find is expected to give insights into the earliest inhabitants of the Greater Antilles and the animals they encountered.
“To be honest, I couldn’t believe my eyes as I viewed each of these astonishing discoveries underwater,” Beeker said. “The virtually intact extinct faunal skeletons really amazed me, but what may prove to be a fire pit from the first human occupation of the island just seems too good to be true. But now that the lithics (stone tools) are authenticated, I can’t wait to direct another underwater expedition into what may prove to become one of the most important prehistoric sites in all the Caribbean.”
Beeker and researchers Jessica Keller and Harley McDonald found the tools and bones in fresh water 28- to 34-feet deep in a cave called Padre Nuestro. Nearby, and also underwater in the same cave, were found more recent Taino artifacts. The Taino were the first Native American peoples to encounter Europeans. Beeker and his colleagues have been diving in this particular cave, which sits beneath a limestone bluff and is only accessible after submerging into a small pool, since 1996 as they studied its use as a Taino water-gathering site.
Geoffrey Conrad, director of the Mathers Museum of World Culture at IU Bloomington and professor of anthropology, said the tools are estimated to be 4,000 to 6,500 years old. The bones might range in age from 4,000 and 10,000 years old. While sloth bones are not uncommon, he knows of only a handful of other primate skulls found in the Caribbean.
“I know of no place that has sloths, primates and humanly made stone tools together in a nice, tight association around the same time,” said Conrad, also associate vice provost for research at IU Bloomington. “Right now it looks like a potential treasure trove of data to help us sort out the relationship in time between humans and extinct animals in the Greater Antilles. This site definitely is worthy of a large-scale investigation.”
The three stone tools and remnants, made of basalt and limestone, were examined by internationally known IU anthropologists Nicholas Toth and Kathy Schick, who told researchers the palm-sized stones showed unmistakable signs of human craftsmanship. Toth and Schick are co-directors of the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology (CRAFT) Stone Age Institute in Bloomington.
IU primate expert Kevin Hunt told researchers the primate could have been a howler monkey which is extinct in the Caribbean. Keller said the sloth bones came from six, and possibly seven, sloths and include several species, including one the size of a black bear and another the size of a large dog. She said the primate skull is significantly different than the other primate skulls found in the Caribbean.
“Very few primate skulls have been found in the Caribbean,” she said. “The others, found in the late 1800s and early 1900s, are three times as large. We have received a permit to bring the skull to Indiana University for further study. It’s all very exciting.”
Conrad said the lithics and bones, which have arrived at Beeker’s laboratory in the School of HPER, have not only expanded the research program to an earlier time but also to an issue of concern worldwide — the extinction of native birds and animals upon the arrival of humans. Caribbean sloths are among the many species that became extinct soon after the presence of humans.
Researchers with the Office of Underwater Science in the School of HPER work closely with cultural, historical, and tourism agencies and organizations in the Dominican Republic to protect and explore the country’s cultural heritage and natural history. Keller said local interest in the discoveries has been phenomenal. The cave where they were discovered, which is part of an aquifer and cave system that supplies water to nearby resorts, has been closed for research purposes.
“There’s a strong interest in protecting it, in having the research continue,” Keller said. “Our partners were excited before we even found the primate.”
The study is being conducted in cooperation with the Secretariat of State for Culture through the Office of Underwater Heritage and the Museum of Dominican Man, the Secretariat of State for Tourism, and the Secretariat of State for Environment and Natural Resources.
Four Seasons In Great Exuma, Bahamas purchased by Sandals
Posted , add a comment- Caribbean suffers crippling impact of the global recession
- Investments pour into St. Kitts despite global economic downturn
- Ferry service soon to be a choice for five Southern Caribbean destinations
- Attracting Chinese tourists the Jamaican way!
- Tropical Storm Ana watches canceled by Caribbean governments
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Aug 21, 2009
The Royal Plantation Collection and Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts, today announced the purchase of the recently shuttered Four Seasons Resort Great Exuma at Emerald Bay for an undisclosed sum. According to Sandals Resorts Founder and Chairman, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the 500-acre property, which features a championship Greg Norman golf course and world-class marina, is set to become a Sandals Resort and will be called Sandals Emerald Bay, Great Exuma, Bahamas. Following certain enhancements customary to the Sandals Resorts brand, including an expansive new pool complex and additional dining establishments, the resort will open January 22, 2010.
“This is a remarkable moment in the history of Sandals Resorts,” Stewart said. “We are acquiring one of the most spectacular pieces of real estate in the Caribbean, which was operated by one of the world’s most highly regarded hotel companies. This is a reflection of all that Sandals Resorts has accomplished and a tremendous opportunity to further demonstrate our commitment to providing the very best vacation in the Caribbean. We look forward to bringing our Luxury Included(R) experience to this special property, which has been kept to impeccable standards.”
Unfolding like a grand estate, Sandals Emerald Bay is set along a one-mile stretch of white sand beach on Emerald Bay, Great Exuma, Bahamas. According to Stewart, the all-suite resort will offer a selection of 190 “magnificently-appointed” luxury accommodations with styles that range from beachfront villas to charming bay house settings - all oceanfront, all extremely spacious and all serviced by butlers trained by Sandals Resorts through the company’s exclusive partnership with the Guild of Professional English Butlers.
Other amenities include a fully-equipped tennis center featuring six Har-tru courts lit for night play with professional stadium seating fit for competition; a full-service Red Lane(R) Spa with 22 indoor treatment areas and six exotic outdoor sanctuaries; plus six gourmet restaurants, including four new concepts introduced by Sandals Resorts, a fine-dining seafood restaurant, an authentic Italian brick-oven pizzeria, a French-style cafe and a traditional British pub complete with a pool and snooker room.
To complement its sublime ocean views, the property will also debut three pools including a brand new freshwater pool. Encompassing over half an acre, this spectacular pool will entice guests with a Jacuzzi, swim-up pool bar and unique fire-pit seating area in the center. Flanking the pool will be misting columns and luxurious cabanas equipped with wireless Internet access. Whether poolside or on the beach, all guests will receive a full complement of butler services. In addition, the resort will cater to business and meetings customers, offering 13,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor meeting space. This includes three large ballrooms with separate event entrance that can be converted into smaller rooms, all with access to a dedicated conference facility kitchen and two meetings rooms, which are all supported by round-the-clock conference and technology services.
Unique to the Great Exuma property is a stunning 18-hole Greg Norman-designed championship golf course, reputed to be among the best in the Caribbean, as well as a 17-acre, stand-alone Emerald Bay Marina by Sandals, the first-ever marina for any Sandals Resort. This fully-protected, deepwater marina offers 133 slips and is equipped to accommodate and service yachts up to 300 feet in length. Open to the public, the marina also features a welcoming clubhouse with a full-service restaurant including al fresco dining on a spectacular wraparound terrace, pool, a world-class Red Lane(R) Spa and facilities to accommodate families with children.
Continued Investment in the Caribbean
Sandals Emerald Bay is the fourteenth Sandals Resort in the Jamaican-based company’s portfolio and the third investment the company has made in The Bahamas, already home to Sandals Royal Bahamian Spa Resort & Offshore Island in Nassau and Royal Plantation Island at Fowl Cay in the Exumas. “We have deep roots in The Bahamas. We know the people and these islands well and it is our distinct pleasure and honor to further our partnership in tourism here,” Stewart said.
Stewart credits receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the government of The Bahamas on their efficiency in bringing this deal to a speedy conclusion. Stewart recognizes the impact the closing had on the local economy and is anxious to get people back to work. “We take enormous pride in our Caribbean legacy and specifically, our Jamaican heritage. Through job creation, real training and community involvement, spanning healthcare initiatives to education and the environment, we have worked hard to improve the countries where we operate and in turn, have become a better company and our employees, better citizens. Our commitment to the people of The Bahamas remains strong,” added Stewart.
Caribbean suffers crippling impact of the global recession
Posted , add a comment- Investments pour into St. Kitts despite global economic downturn
- Ferry service soon to be a choice for five Southern Caribbean destinations
- Attracting Chinese tourists the Jamaican way!
- Tropical Storm Ana watches canceled by Caribbean governments
- Once upon a fam trip to Bimini, Bahamas ?
- Lesbians save the world, one Caribbean cruise at a time
- Going to the Bahamas? Don't forget the donuts!
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Aug 21, 2009
The Caribbean region continues to suffer from the crippling impact of the global recession.
That information was contained in the Central Bank of Barbados Economic Review, June 2009. The challenges were faced with particular respect to the critical tourism sector.
It said: “Long stay arrivals declined in all countries except for Cuba, Jamaica and Cancun, Mexico, as arrivals to these territories rose by two per cent, 0.2 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively. Long stay arrivals for Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Lucia fell by 4.6 per cent, 14.3 per cent and 13.7 per cent, respectively. Similarly, tourist arrivals for Anguilla, Belize and St. Vincent and the Grenadines declined by 21.4 per cent, 7.7 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively, for the first two months of 2009. The downturn in long stay arrivals throughout the Caribbean region was driven by a fall-off in visitors from major source markets, namely, Europe and the United States.”
It was also revealed that the performance of the productive sectors in the region was mixed: “Construction value added in Jamaica and the Bahamas remained moderate during the last quarter of 2008. However, in Trinidad and Tobago the sector continued to benefit from ongoing work on a number of private and governmental projects. With respect to agricultural output, value-added in the sector declined in Jamaica, the OECS and Trinidad and Tobago, while marginal growth was recorded in Guyana.”
Some of the larger economies suffered major contraction: “The level of inflation in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago eased during the first quarter of 2009. At February 2009, the rate of inflation in Jamaica was 0.8 per cent, compared to 1.8 per cent in the corresponding period of 2008 and zero percent in December 2008. Increases in all sub-categories fluctuated between 0.1 per cent and 1.1 per cent except for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels. Similarly, the rate of inflation in Trinidad and Tobago slowed from 14.5 per cent at the end of December 2008 to 11.7 per cent in January 2009. This outturn was mainly driven by a reduction in food prices. However, inflationary pressures strengthened in the Bahamas, as a rate of inflation moved to 4.28 per cent at March 2009, compared to 2.63 per cent, one year earlier.” (DB)