Díaz-Canel emphasized that “Cuba is overjoyed by Luis Arce’s victory” and celebrates the rebirth of the Bolivarian ideal.

(Taken from Granma)

Cuba’s goal is to reach 4.5 million visitors this year, a figure that can be achieved with no problem if directives and work projections, discussed February 28 during the leisure industry’s annual review, are implemented.

Although the year will surely be difficult and challenging, given the current context, noted President of the Republic of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, speaking at the Ministry of Tourism (Mintur) meeting, “We cannot stop or give up, we must continue moving forward with the conviction that no one, much less Yankee arrogance, is going to detain us.”

The annual review was also attended by Prime Minister Manuel Marrero; Mercedes López Acea, member of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee’s Political Bureau and Secretariat; and Tourism Minister Juan Carlos García Granda, among other authorities.

In revisiting the industry’s performance in 2019, Díaz-Canel noted the impact of U.S. government sanctions and measures meant to damage our economy, which led to a decrease of 9.26% in the number of visitors, as compared to the previous year, with a total of 4,275,561 international tourists arriving.

Although projections were not met, the President stated, to have reached such a figure, in such a complicated context, must be considered an achievement. We cannot, however, lose sight of certain goals, including work to improve the quality of services, develop better options, while maintaining a friendly, professional environment, key to providing a pleasant stay for visitors, he said.

Given this reality, Díaz-Canel continued, we must implement new marketing strategies, promote innovative thinking with much creativity and attention to detail, and present genuine Cuban culture.

This opinion was shared by Manuel Marrero, who highlighted the development of a plan with 56 measures to increase the arrival of visitors to the country, of which 71% are already being implemented.

He likewise addressed the need to develop more powerful commercial work, find new market niches and recover lost ones, while taking better advantage of opportunities for domestic tourism, promoting Cuban participation in tourist activities with attractive offers and services.

A day lost in computerization is a day given away to the enemy, Marrero insisted, pointing out that the use of social media in commercial and promotional work is insufficient.

“We need a greater presence on digital platforms, to position our offers. We need to continue developing e-commerce. Although progress has been made, the goal is to provide customers access to hotel prices, updated promotions, make reservations and even pay online.”

He insisted on the extension of connectivity in hotels and continued efforts to automate systems and services in the industry.

Another priority, he noted, is to raise the quality of our tourism. “For this we must create new products, consider the age of facilities and renovate them as needed, promote our gastronomy as a reference that also sells the image of Cuba, and develop more extra-hotel activities with nightlife options, cabarets and discos.”

Internal accounting is another recurrent issue to be addressed, he stated, insisting on working with greater rigor, leaving no room for corruption.

Given the importance of reducing imports within the sector, consolidating relations and productive links with national industry was a key point on the meeting’s agenda.

This is an area in which we have made progress, but not enough. We must restructure our work and gather data that allows us to see how much tourism can save by purchasing supplies from Cuban companies, that we now buy on the international market, he said.

Toward that end, the Prime Minister recalled, formulas have been sought to stimulate the participation of national industry in tourism, including credit available from Finatur – a non-banking financial institution, affiliated with the Central Bank of Cuba – which provides financing to domestic companies to develop productive chains with tourism.

Another incentive is payment in freely convertible currency to companies supplying products that replace imports, for up to 50% of the amount owed, an option that both tourist entities and domestic producers should take advantage of, without, of course, compromising quality, he said.

Ties with universities and technical schools, with a pool of resources that can support the sector, continue to be vital, as well as working with non-state economic actors, to provide construction and repair services in our facilities, as well as lodging, dining and other services, the Prime Minister stated.

Strengthening the work of cadres, rejuvenating our minds and ways of doing things, meeting the demands of the times the country is facing, were also emphasized during the meeting. We cannot be discouraged or disheartened. In spite of the enemy’s efforts to disrupt the industry in Cuba, tourism, as a strategic sector for economic development, continues and will continue to contribute to the country, he insisted.

OF INTERNAL DEFICIENCIES AND OTHER ILLS

According to the report presented by Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos Garcia Granda, the external aspects that affected the sector were compounded by our own inadequacies, all the untapped potential, and lack of more effective public communication, especially directly with retail travel agencies and in sales of optional activities.

We must continue working on raising the quality of our tourist products, he said. “We are aware that this issue must be addressed comprehensively as required, and with actions on the part of staff and workers, to ensure good service to the customers who visit us.”

The lack of internet connectivity via wifi has been a frequent complaint raised by tourists, he noted. To address this issue, a series of measures were adopted, and now 44% of hotels have full coverage, and 62% of four and five stars facilities have wifi throughout their properties, including the beach.

Also in need of attention is the use of e-commerce as a marketing tool, via Cuba’s own websites, since the tendency has been to rely on virtual travel agencies like Expedia and Booking.com.

“In this arena, the ministerial strategy is to use the official tourism portal CubaTravel, one of 22 projects prioritized in the national Plan for the Computerization of Cuban Society,” García stated.

He noted that the industry continues to advance, with the construction of two joint-venture hotels on Trinidad’s Ancon Peninsula, investment projects that are moving forward satisfactorily.

“Despite of these accomplishments, deficiencies persist, on which work must continue, including development, approval, dissolution or liquidation of businesses with foreign capital. Along with the impact of the activation of the Helms-Burton Act’s Title III, these deficiencies made the realization of prioritized projects impossible,” Gracía said.

According to the Minister of Tourism, although 2020 began with significant tension, the year’s plan was designed based on the sector’s potential, not on last year’s deficiencies.

Difficulties associated with marketing, quality, investment, economic and financial issues, internal accounting, management, computerization and productive chains must become work objectives this year, with a focus on strategies that lead to their resolution, since only this way can proposed objectives be met, he said.

(Source:Granma)

Although only names or pseudonyms are written, no professions or ages, it is very comforting to note that, in addition to numerous well-known followers of Martí, the majority are educators and young people interested in making their feelings about Martí public.

Ela, an early childhood teacher, has written that she was very moved when she talked about Martí with children in the fifth year of life, and they immediately, spontaneously ran to embrace and kiss the bust, where they place flowers every morning.

Enrique, a young professional, proudly recounts that, as a child, he played the part of Martí in a parade in his hometown, Placetas, and that when he graduated from the University he carried the Cuban flag to the top of Turquino Peak to pay tribute to him.

As Yamaris Pedraza states, “Every Cuban has a Martí inside, we have all read and performed his works, his thoughts.”

And how are Martí’s thoughts illuminating us! I have friends with good memories who constantly quote him to prove that he talked about everything, that he touched on every subject, and that in his writings we can find answers to the most difficult questions. Our schools could organize contests to find statements by Martí that are useful to human growth. You would see what a source of ethical values would flood them.

I once heard Pedro Pablo Rodriguez, director of the critical edition of his Complete Works, say that the man who lived only 42 years, left a truly infinite legacy. So frequently and constantly do new things appear in relation to Martí that his work seems to never end.

This work, and that generated by its study in Cuba and around the world, is already on social media, where young people share it and understand, in the end, that there is a great deal of Martí to be learned within his prose and verse that fascinate them. They discover with emotion that he is not a man of the last century but of all centuries.

But is this Martí? Many ask, amazed at the extraordinary validity of his statements and the universality of the issues he addressed.

When the newest – be they children or youth – discover that the man of the Golden Age also wrote wonderful things for adults, about the world order and the dangers that still beset us, it becomes impossible for them to escape from the need to turn to him. If they find him and delve into his essence, nothing can separate them from the charms of his words. And they become invincible.

Nonetheless, as Marti himself said in the Cuban Revolutionary Party’s manifesto to Cuba: “The homeland is sacred, and those who love it disinterested, tirelessly, owe it the whole truth.”

I do not want to exaggerate, nor can I. Martí is not yet as we would like him to be, and as he needs to be, to enrich the souls of our children and our children’s children. We continue and will continue to need Martí, always. And it is our responsibility to teach him, wisely and lovingly, as only good parents and good teachers can.

A blow from the depths of hatred recently shook our consciences in relation to the pernicious routine that allows us to forget care of Marti’s busts. Not the physical works that have accompanied us since childhood, but their integrity, what they symbolize.

Subsequent events came along to show us what it means to be with Martí, on the side of those who love and found. Or against Martí, on the side of those who hate and destroy.

Today is February 24; 125 years have passed since the beginning of the most noble of wars. The one Martí organized and led, defining it as “a complete, humanitarian war, in which the people of Cuba, invincible and indivisible, are even more united.”

In the Montecristi Manifesto, Martí and Gomez invoked, “as a guide and support for our people,” Cuba’s “magnanimous founders, whose work renews the grateful country, and honor, which prevents Cubans from wounding, in word or deed, those who die for them.”

It was March 25, 1895, on the eve of the long journey that would bring them back to the homeland, where veteran patriots and a new generation were already fighting for independence, who only Martí could move and bring together with his enormous faith “in human improvement and the usefulness of virtue.” This faith sustains our legendary resistance. Let us all take care of it by going deeply into Martí.

(Presidencia.cu)

On hand for the occasion, were Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, President of the Republic of Cuba; Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State; Alpidio Alonso, minister of Culture, and Truong Thi Mai, member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Central Committee, who is leading the Vietnamese delegation to the Fair, among other distinguished personalities.

Rodríguez reported that, despite difficult conditions created by the intensification of the brutal U.S. blockade, the celebration of literature was organized, with more than 300 intellectuals and figures of contemporary culture, exhibitors and distributors from more than 40 countries participating, and warmly greeted the delegation from Vietnam, a people to which we are united by six decades of close friendship, he noted.

More than 4,000 titles and four million copies are available at the Fair, an unmistakable sign, sent to the world, of the Cuban people’s resistance and our commitment to continue raising our cultural level, especially that of children and youth, he said.

An audiovisual was screened highlighting the contributions of the authors to whom the Fair is dedicated: the unforgettable Dr. Ana Cairo Ballester, with more than 20 books published and a life dedicated to knowledge, and Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, present at the event, and one of Cuba’s most outstanding playwrights, director of the country’s Caribbean Theatre Company and author of several classics.

Truong Thi Mai, also head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Mass Mobilization Department and president of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association, on behalf of her Party and people, thanked Cuba for the special invitation, adding that it was a great honor to be in the beautiful, hospitable Havana, and that, despite the geographical distance, “Rarely do two countries in the world have such a close relationship.”

Performances by the artistic delegation from Vietnam, troubadour Eduardo Sosa, pianist José María Vitier and soprano Bárbara Llanes, enlivened the evening, before the inauguration of Vietnamese Pavilion, with President Díaz-Canel and other personalities cutting the ribbon.

(Source: Granma)

After conversing briefly within the airport treminal, Raúl accompanied Hollande to his plane, which proceeded to Haiti, the President’s last stop on his Caribbean tour. Hollande thanked the Cuban leader for the “very useful” visit and predicted that many other Presidents would soon visit the island.

As the French President’s airplane prepared to depart, Raúl addressed journalists gathered on the tarmac, summarizing the activities in which the visiting dignitary participated.

Asked about prospects for Cuba’s relations with the European Union, Raúl emphasized the upcoming Summit in Brussels between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the EU.

Referring to the updating of Cuba’s economic model, he commented that the process was moving forward “at our own pace,” adding, “Many criticize us for going slow, and I ask myself why we need to hurry, just to make mistakes… We don’t want to take any steps that might sacrifice our people, this is the most important and our people understand that.”

(Diario Granma)