T O U R I S M

• Cuban art in China’s Gran Meliá Shanghai Hotel
February.4.10
WORKS by more than 60 Cuban artists decorate China’s Gran Meliá Shanghai Hotel, inaugurated yesterday by Manuel Marrero, Cuban minister of tourism.
About 3,500 pieces of framed art, sculptures and decorative objects adorn the facility’s nine floors. According to the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, the hotel is one of the best of its kind in the world.

• Cuban rum has no secrets
December.16.09
THE history of Cuban rum is as old as colonization itself, given that is a product extracted from sugar cane, which was brought to the island by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to this continent. What followed is well known, the roots of sugar cane from the Canary Islands flourished in fertile Cuban soil, where they found an ideal microclimate to grow, primarily around indigenous villages and trading posts.

• IN OLD HAVANA
The lady of the Castle
September.3.09
THE Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Castle of the Royal Force), located in the oldest part of Havana, attracts the attention of hundreds of tourists who visit it every week, not just because of its harmonious, Renaissance-inspired architecture, or because it is the oldest military construction in the city, but also because of the legend surrounding the artistic weather vane, known as La Giraldilla, which tops its lookout tower.

• IN OLD HAVANA
The Franchi Alfaro House: El Escorial Café
May.15.09
THIS former colonial mansion, also known as the home of the Marquises of the Royal Proclamation," is located on one corner of Plaza Vieja, and forms part of a group of houses with similar 18th century architectural characteristics.

• Historical record of 2.319 million tourists broken today
December 27.08
A new historic record has been established today, breaking the 2005 record of 2.319 million visitors, announced Manuel Marrero, minister of tourism, during his report to the National Assembly of People’s Power, attended by President Raul Castro.

• Cuba consolidated as Caribbean destination
December 4.08
FOR the fifth consecutive year, Cuba has already surpassed the two-million foreign visitors mark for this year, announced the Ministry of Tourism in a statement in which it highlighted the fact that on this particular occasion, the important target was reached on November 14, much earlier than in previous years.

• Number of Chinese visitors set to double
December 4.08
BEIJING.—Alexis Trujillo Morejón, Cuban first deputy minister of tourism, said that there are possibilities of doubling within a short space of time the annual number of Chinese tourists visiting the country, currently at an average of 12,000, Xinhua reports.

• Varadero anticipating one million tourists
October.27.08
VARADERO. — Cuba’s top beach resort has received more than 700,000 tourists to date and the conditions exist for the year to end with a total of one million visitors for the first time in the history of tourism in that province.