TTC 2012 No 212 (TopResa) English

Challenges of Climate Change for Central America and CaribbeanAS PART of the joint actions in favor of conserving life on the planet and for sustainable development for the regions of Central America and the Caribbean, being carried out by the embassies in Havana of the re-publics of Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica, Costa Rican Ambassa-dor Hubert Méndez Acosta gave the interesting lecture “The challenges of climate change for Central America and the Caribbean,” from which we have selected some of his reflections. 2

State of the Tourist Industry in the Caribbean ConferenceCONVENED by the Caribbean Tourism Or-ganization (CTO), the State of the Industry Conference (SOIC) will be held in Saint Kitts October 11 and 12, bringing together more than 300 tourist industry leaders from more than 30 CTO member countries, as well as representa-tives from the regional private sector, acade-micians and the press.

Cuba at Top Resa 2012Cuba is once again present at IFTM Top Resa. The 45 m2 Cu-ban stand is located in the area of the Ca-ribbean and its atmo-sphere features motifs of the Authentic Cuba publicity campaign. 8

French Imprint in the CaribbeanSEVERAL places in the Caribbean de-clared World Cultural Heritage Sites by UNESCO are permeated by French de-scent. There are three of them in Cuba: La Tumba Francesa (Master Work of Oral and Immaterial Heritage), Archaeologi-cal Landscape of the First Coffee Planta-tions of the Southeast of Cuba and the Ur-ban Historic Center of Cienfuegos, a city founded by the French. Haiti safeguards the Historic National Park: Citadel, Sans Souci, Ramiers, which comprise the ruins of the Palace of Sans Souci – built to rival with Versailles –, the Laferrière Fortress and the Ramiers buildings. 12 Palace of Sans Souci.

The Fabulous Caribbean that Speaks French 4French Caribbean: a Garden of Eden 10New Air Connections in the Caribbean

14

speaking aspect in a tropical space, a funda-mental element to reduce the sensation of feel-ing like a stranger.

The tourism sector officially employs 10% of the active population, distributed among around 100 hotels, dozens of restaurants, vaca-tion houses and some 200 hostels. 8

TOURISM IS MARTINIQUE’S principal re-source with income in the order of 250 mil-lion euros and the reception of almost half a million tourists, essentially French (82%); the rest are Europeans (9%) and North American (7%, mainly French-speaking Canadians). The French are especially receptive to the French-

A French Island in the Caribbean.Martinique and the Rum Route

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Year XII • Issue 212 • September 2012 • Regular Edition • www.traveltradecaribbean.com • ISSN 1724 - 5370

International Tourism Publication founded in 1996

2 TRAVEL TRADE CARIBBEAN • YEAR XII • ISSUE 212 • SEPTEMBER 2012

The islands of the Caribbean Sea “could suffer nu-

merous effects” like natural disasters, the depletion of cor-als, effects on game fishing and tourism, with “total losses es-timated at 7% to 18% of the Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP) in 2080.”(WB, Augusto de la Torre).

The vulnerabil-ity studies indicate that the increase of half a meter in the sea level would flood more than 50% of the Caribbean beach-es in the next 50 to 100 years. This fore-seeable effect also would cause signifi-cant impacts on tour-ism, whose principal structures are funda-mentally established on coastal areas and keys of the Caribbean islands.

Precipitation in-creases of between 10% and 20% in the Caribbean, and of just two degrees in the tempera-ture, would reduce the production of beans, maize and rice in close to 10%. Meanwhile, in Central America an excess of rains on the Caribbean coasts would be observed, while in those of the Pacific there would be droughts.

The Central American-Caribbean region is espe-cially vulnerable to these climate changes (socially, economically and environmentally):

▶ Frequency and intensity of extreme climate phe-nomena: hurricanes, heavier rains, droughts

▶ Loss of biodiversity and related environmental services

▶ Reduction of availability and quality of water re-source

▶ Impact on health: increase of gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases and those transmitted by vec-tors

▶ Effect on income-generating activities (agricul-ture, tourism) and public services infrastructure.

Ambassador Méndez Acosta presented in his lec-ture a plan that lists some of the repercussions pro-

jected by the effect of climate change in Latin America and the small island states, based on the Fourth Evaluation Report of the Intergovernmen-tal Panel of Experts on Climate Change:

LATIN AMERICA▶ Increase in tem-perature and the sub-sequent decrease of water from the soil could lead to the gradual replacement of tropical forests with the savanna in Eastern Amazonia. The semiarid envi-ronment vegetation will have to be re-placed with arid soil vegetation▶ Risk of the sig-nificant loss of biodi-versity due to the ex-tinction of species in tropical areas▶ Decrease of pro-ductivity of harvests and cattle, with ad-verse consequences for food security. It is

estimated that the soy yields in temperate areas will increase. As a whole, it is expected that the number of persons in danger of hunger will in-crease

▶ The changes in the precipitation patterns and the disappearance of glaciers would considerably af-fect the availability of water for human consump-tion

SMALL ISLAND STATES▶ The rise in sea level will worsen the f loods, the

force of storms, erosion and other dangers of the coastal areas, threatening with this the vital infrastructure, human settlements and installa-tions that sustain the living means of the insu-lar communities

▶ In the mid century, there would be a reduction of water resources in many of the small islands, like those of the Caribbean and the Pacific, to the point of being insufficient to cover the de-mand during the low precipitation periods

▶ An increasingly greater invasion of non-native species due to the higher temperatures, espe-cially in the medium and high latitude islands. ■

Mr. Hubert Méndez Acosta and Dr. Jennifer Jones-Kernahan, Costa

Rican and Trinidad and Tobago ambassadors to Cuba, respectively.

Photo: TTC.

Challenges of Climate Change for Central America and Caribbean

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say that it is a very well-known cup in France.”

Girard Aprile had already won the trophy in 2005, 2006 and 2009, making him one of the great mar-lin fishers in the Caribbean Sea.

The French team – also made up by Norbert F. Chassery, Bruno Leonardi, Catherine M. Sauvage, Gilles Plichon, Conrado Moreno and Jorge Luis Ferrá – competed on board the Marlin X yacht and was awarded two prizes in the catego-ries of Tag and Release and First Catch.Girard Aprile. Photo: TTC.

I will come to fish. Fishing is eternal, and so is Hemingway,” the French fisher noted.

As to his impressions about the tournament, Aprile said: “I am very happy to have won four times the Hemingway Tournament, it is some-thing exceptional; and to have won the cup at 59. We have had the luck as Frenchmen of maintaining it during these years and to take it to France.”

“We have presented the cup in France; we have toured it through-out the country, to the south, north, east and west, which is why we can

GIRARD APRILE, winner for the fourth time of the Ernest Heming-way International Marlin Fishing Tournament, affirmed in an in-terview for TTC that “of course, I plan to come for the fifth Cup next year,” to the 63rd edition of this Tournament, to be held June 3-7, 2013.

“We have been coming to Cu-ba for 20 years and I plan to con-tinue coming, except if I’m sick or have some other problem of force majeure. While I have the possibilities of continuing to fish,

French Team Vying for Fifth Hemingway Cup

DIVERSE CARIBBEANIn the French-speaking Caribbean Haiti

is waiting for better times. Its revolution, the first in America, was a social hecatomb that changed its face and destiny. Haiti is part of the French-speaking Caribbean islands but actually the majority of its population speaks dialects derived from the French: Creole and French-based Creole.

French is also the official language in the French overseas territories of French Gui-ana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barthé-lemy, Saint Martin and Saint Peter and Miguelón.

But Haiti is different. Earthquakes, hur-ricanes and a terrible poverty still don’t al-low it to take off in tourism. Countries like the Dominican Republic, which shares with that nation the island of La Hispaniola, and Mexico are currently taking steps to develop that industry.

Dominican Minister of Tourism Francis-co Javier García said in early 2012 that “The Dominican Republic has great experience and is willing to collaborate with Haiti so that it can again resume the growth it had in previous years” in the sector.

Meanwhile, Haitian Minister of Tourism Stéphanie B. Villedrouin also recently an-nounced in Mexico that her country is work-ing to achieve the application of the Mexican strategies in the sector that can be consid-ered appropriate for the Caribbean country.

The interest in the Mexican model is due to the fact that Haiti is currently seeking to attract foreign investments and consid-ers tourism one of the central focuses for its economic development.

But with its rugged territory, of fast and short rivers and its coasts facing the same emerald green sea as the rest of the Caribbe-an islands, Haiti is part of the fable. A never-ending fable. ■

fashion, customs, and automobiles likes the Citroën and Renault, and the art and culture of France.

The French Antilles seem to all have ex-traordinary peculiarities, or perhaps mythical. They are also formed by Martinique, Guade-loupe and five lesser islands more dependent on Guadeloupe. The names of the islets, which have not been exploited massively by tourism, are suggestive: Marie-Galante, Les Saintes and La Désirade.

Guadeloupe is, even in the fable, perhaps the most fabulous. Strictly speaking it is an ar-chipelago that forms a French overseas depart-ment and a so-called ultra-peripheral region of the European Union. In olden times the indig-enous people called it Karukera, which means “island of the beautiful waters”.

Grande-Terre is its capital and it is a region with white sandy beaches and rolling hills. The island’s largest town, Pointe-à-Pitre, is a Euro-pean-style shopping town that offers products with “made in France” labels.

Basse-Terre is dominated by a sleeping vol-cano, La Soufrière, which according to geog-raphy is the highest point of the east of the Caribbean with a height of 1.46 km. Experts in tourism recommend that you pass through the nearby tropical forests in the 74,100-acre Natural Park of Guadeloupe, or spend a day in Grand Anse, one of the island’s best beaches.

With time and money the obligatory visit is the Marie-Galante islet in the southeast, with spectacular beaches and rums that are the en-vy of other Caribbean producers. La Désirade is almost virgin; perhaps that’s where its name comes from.

■ Frank Martin

The French-speaking Caribbean islands are like a fable. Once upon a time there were islands and islets of white san-

dy beaches in the south, of black sand in the north with ideal coves for scuba div-ing, swimming, fishing, reefs, thermal water springs, mountainous terrains, ravines, for-ests, volcanoes, beautiful f lowers, like lilacs, orchids, and tropical fruits like coconuts, pineapples or papayas.

In the fable the main characters would be the natural and lying in wait giants like the 1,463-meter-high Mont Pelée Volcano which in 1902 erupted destroying Saint-Pierre, one of the principal cities of one of the islands, and some 30,000 persons died in that disas-ter.

However, that island that at one time was called Jouanacaëra-Matinino whose original inhabitants were the Caribs, deadly fierce, is currently called Martinique and the emerald green waters of a tranquil sea, when a hurri-cane doesn’t approach, are a magnet for na-ture lovers.

Martinique has a tropical climate that con-noisseurs describe as exceptional with a mean temperature of 25 degrees Celsius throughout the year. This means that the islands of vol-canic origin that form Martinique are “open” the year round for the tropical enjoyment of the sea and open-air fun.

Fort-de-France has 100,000 inhabitants and is its capital city, the most populated and Martinique’s principal port. A French-style city with signs of the best Parisian style,

The Fabulous Caribbean that Speaks French


control and some construction techniques.

Phase 1, in exploitation and period of guarantee, compris-es the harbormaster’s office and the technical infrastructure for the repair and maintenance of the Marina’s vessels. In phase 2, at 60% of the execution, the hotel and the condominiums are being built. The investment is undergo-ing its third construction phase (at 6%), in which the accommo-dation modules and the induced maritime works will be conclud-ed.

The quality of the construc-tions on land is guaranteed by a triple quality, security and envi-ronment certification company, according to international stan-dards, granted by AFAX, the French Quality Assurance Agen-cy. ■

and the construction company an international Economic As-sociation made up by the French Bouygues Batiment International with 50% of the shares (present in Cuba for 12 years) and the Cuban ARCOS, of Varadero, which like the Empai is attached to the Min-istry of Construction.

Built 100% with Cuban bud-get, the French part basically con-tributes the knowhow, organi-zational elements, management

apartments (42 in each one) – 27 studios, 46 with one bedroom and 53 with two – which have a private swimming pool.

The complex includes 738 m2 of common areas: spa, bowling alley, swimming pool, beach res-taurant, bars, restaurants, shops, mini market, laundry, baby club, party room and sea boardwalk.

The Almest Real Estate Agen-cy is the investment entity; the designer, Empai from Matanzas,

Among the investments that the Cuban authorities are undertaking, with the aim

of consolidating the positioning of the Varadero tourist destina-tion, there is one of great impor-tance that stands out, the exten-sion of the Marina Gaviota, on the tip of the beach resort.

The work as a whole, previewed to start operating in 2013, will raise to 1,200 the mooring capac-ity of the international marina, and includes a five-star hotel re-sort of 423 rooms - of which 18 are suites – made up by a central part, the highest with seven floors, and four wings; five restaurants, beach grill and the sky, swimming pool and aqua bars, in addition to a convention center and a commer-cial mall on the first floor.

It also has three condomini-ums (apartment hotels) with 126

General view of the Marina under construction and the harbormaster’s office.

Photo: TTC.

Marina Gaviota Varadero Will Be an Integral Tourist Product

Cuba has 58,626 rooms, of which 63% are in four- and five-star hotels and 71% are dedicated to sun

and beach vacation tourism, 23% to city tourism and 2% to nature. Photo: Melia Cuba Courtesy.

is also underway in an assessment of the existing hotels to remodel them and raise the category of several installations, since it would be a faster and more economic way of meeting the demand for four- and five-star rooms.

Foreign investment continues being an important modality in the de-velopment of Cuban tourism. There are 30 joint ventures that operate more than 6,000 rooms and a similar number is being prepared. They also operate 62 management and marketing contracts with 13 international hotel chains, which manage 47.4% of the country’s rooms.

The magnitude of the projects in which we are working to build real es-tate developments linked to golf courses has required going through a long and deep, but necessary, process of preparation. We are in the final stage of the negotiations for the four most advanced projects, and we plan to create the joint ventures for those that are ready before the end of the year, the min-ister added.

In this sense, the non-state activity in accommodations, gastronomy and other services will continue being developed as a tourist offer that comple-ments the state services. At present there are 618 paladares (private restau-rants) and 5,207 rooms that provide accommodations for tourists, the major-ity of them high-quality competitive products.

Seventy-three airlines, 40 regular and 33 charters, transport tourists to Cuba from 19 countries.

Airport capacities are currently being modernized and expanded. The ex-pansion of Varadero’s international airport made it possible to increase its capacity by 50%, and Havana’s José Martí International Airport’s Terminal 2 doubled it. Moreover, the runways and VIP salons were rehabilitated in the airports of Bayamo, Cayo Largo and Santiago de Cuba. Santa Clara’s airport will be expanded to increase new operations with large-size aircraft during the 2012-2013 winter season. ■

In 2012 Cuba has advanced in the preparation of new and important in-vestments. The Marina and El Patriarca hotels are being built in Varade-ro; Planta Real La Estrella and Laguna del Este I, II and III in Cayo Santa

María; Flamenco I, II, III and IV in Cayo Coco; the Capri Hotel, Bungalow Alborada and Cueto Hotel in Havana; Barcelona in Villa Clara; Pansea in Trinidad; and Ordoño in Holguín, Cuban Minister of Tourism Manuel Mar-rero announced at the inauguration of FITCuba 2012.

The investment processes in the new hotels in Coloradas in Cayo Coco, Albatros in Guardalavaca and Palacio Iznaga in Trinidad should start before the end of the year.

Today Cuba has 58,626 rooms, of which 63% are four- and five-star hotels and 71% are dedicated to sun and beach vacation tourism, 23% to city tourism and 2% to nature tourism.

There are plans for hotel investments in Viñales, Santa Clara, Remedios, Cienfuegos, Ciego de Ávila, Camagüey, Bayamo, Gibara, Santiago de Cuba, Baracoa and the construction of five new high-standard hotels in Trinidad.

The construction of new hotels in Old Havana, El Vedado and Miramar has been previewed for the capital, all of them with a five-star category. Work

Tourist Industry’s Projections in Cuba


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Cuban Ministry of TourismAugust 2012

which the French public will be able to enjoy the Authentic Cuba.

IFTM Top Resa thus becomes the ideal space for the Cuban industry to promote its diversity of products, linked to its rich cultural and historic heritage, not forgetting the poten-tials for the events and incentives segment and highlighting the Cayos product for the lovers of these exclu-sive natural retreats.

The exchange with the principal collaborators (tour operators, travel agencies and airlines), as a balance of the results obtained in the first half of the year and the promising pros-pects for this market, which at the close of July registered a more than 12% growth, will complete the days of the island’s delegation in the event, in

WITH THE PRESENCE OF a numerous representation, the Cuban delegation is headed by the island’s Ministry of Tourism and its Promotion and Tour-ist Information Office in France, with the presence of Havanatur and Cuba-na Airlines. The tour operators Viajes Cubanacán, Cubatur, Gaviota Tours and San Cristóbal and the hotel enti-ties Gran Caribe, Cubanacán, Gaviota, Habaguanex, together with the asso-ciated chains Meliá, Iberostar, Occi-dental, Blue Diamond, Hoteles C and Accor are also participating.

Cuba at Top Resa 2012

TOURIST ARRIVALS TO MARTINIQUE

SOURCE: DRAWN UP BASED ON DATA FROM THE MARTINIQUE PROMOTION BUREAU.

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010470 891 484 127 502 053 503 107 479 933 443 202 476 492

Philip Chevalier, director of the Bas-Du-Fort Marina

and winner in 2007 of the Rum Route, with the author.

rie, to the north, the Musée du Rhum in the St. James sugar plantation, visitors find all the history and, a short distance away, in Fonds Saint-Jacques, a settlement built in 1658 by the Dominican friars, a scenario where time has stopped is on display, the Musée du Père Labat.

Principal distilleries:Distillerie Dillon Fort-de-France Distillerie Depaz Saint-Pierre Habitation Clement François Trois-Rivières Sainte-Luce La Mauny Rivière-Pilote Rhum Neisson Le CarbetSt. James Rum Museum Sainte-Marie Bally (Habitation Lajus) Le CarbetDistillerie JM MacoubaDistillerie St.Etienne Gros-MorneDistillerie La Favorite LamentinIn Martinique there are dozens of distill-

eries and rhum museums where the best An-tillean rums can be tasted, supporting the slo-gan: The Rum Capital of the World.

To the natural attractions of Martinique and its counterpart Guadeloupe is added the largest nautical marina of the Antilles: Mari-na Bas-du-fort, which is the venue of the Rum Route transatlantic regatta. This route leaves from Saint-Malo in France where the most ex-perienced yachtsmen from several countries in the world come together.

Following the Rum Route would take us lat-er to Montego Bay, in Jamaica, and to Santiago de Cuba, the cradle of light rums; not forget-ting Mount Gay Distillery in Barbados and the oldest distillery among those that still produce rum, which has been functioning since 1703. ■

Martinique, a French territory since 1635, has a land area of 1,100 km2 and 450,000 in-habitants. It is one of the richest islands of the insular Caribbean, after Cayman Islands, Ba-hamas and U.S. Virgin Islands. This situation is defined above all by the presence of a local middle class linked to the European France, a rare characteristic in the region.

Like in the other Caribbean islands, agri-cultural activities are at a standstill. Only 7% of the active population works in that sector (dominated by the production of bananas, pineapples and sugar cane for rum): the subsi-dized crops flags and “the sugar island” has to import beet sugar to meet the local consump-tion.

This marvelous island’s tourist activity is linked to the history of rum. In Sainte-Ma-

■ Dr. José Luis PerellóDoctor of Economic Science, Full Professor, Faculty of Tourism, University of Havana. Advisor for the National Chamber of Tourism (CANATUR), Honduras, and of MINTUR, Cuba

The Caribbean is a geographical area identi-fied with tourist trips, in which two physi-cal structures stand out: the Caribbean

Sea and the Caribbean islands. The Caribbean Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean partially closed to the north and east of the current An-tilles. It owes its name to the Carib indigenous people who inhabited the area when the Eu-ropean conquistadors arrived in the 15th cen-tury.

The Caribbean Sea and its Antillean islands are a mosaic of nationalities and cultures con-stituted into a space of leisure for international tourism, which every year moves to that sub-region some 20 million travelers in search of beaches, fun and wellbeing. Islands that bring to mind stories of pirates and galleons, of hid-den treasures, carefree people and a liquor that distinguishes it, the rum as baptized by the English or rhum by the French.

That drink was mentioned for the first time in 1650 in documents from Barbados; later in Jamaica and subsequently in the French Mar-tinique where the incomparable rhumagricole was created, obtained through the distillation of fermented cane juice, and not from molas-ses.

Since then, drinking rum doesn’t mean an act that transforms and causes carefree effects and euphoria in persons and their behavior, but rather it has become a part of the culture of all the Caribbean peoples as a historic, ra-cial and hereditary imprint, of the melting pot of several cultures and of the entire transcul-tural process of which the Caribbean peoples are participants.

A French Island in the Caribbean. Martinique and the Rum Route

More Access Facilities to Villa Clara Keys

ed in 1999. Today, there are nine hotels in the Villa Clara keys with a total of 5,682 rooms, of which 94% have a five-star cat-egory.

“What is peculiar about the development of the tourist prod-uct in the Villa Clara keys,” he continued, “is that the modern hotel establishments have been combined with a series of facili-ties that allow for fully meeting our clients’ leisure and recre-ation needs.”

In short, the facilities that have been concluded include the Cayo Las Brujas Marina Gaviota, the dolphinarium, the Interna-tional Clinic and a new proposal, the well-known towns of Las Du-nas and La Estrella. Moreover, the SPA services, in five installa-tions of this type, have been de-veloped. ■

jas, Ensenachos and Santa María keys to terra firma through the majestic work of the causeway gave rise to an unprecedented tourist development project in our country.”

The first tourist installation, Villa Las Brujas, was inaugurat-

Brujas airport are an excellent alternative for our markets and tour operators in order to offer, together with conventional stays, packages of combined trips,” the vice president of Gaviota said.

According to Oltuski, “the joining in 1995 of the Las Bru-

NEW FLIGHTS will be opened from Mexico and France to Santa Clara’s Abel Santamaría Interna-tional Airport for the 2012-2013 peak season, which will facili-tate these markets’ access to the Villa Clara keys, the youngest Cuban tourist destination. The information was given by Frank P. Oltuski Rodríguez, marketing vice president of the Gaviota S.A. Tourism Group, to the tour op-erators and the press at FITCuba 2012.

Referring to this airport, Oltuski affirmed that “the inter-national connections have main-tained a sustained growth and the operation from Argentina has been a success…, the air ter-minal will be improved, expand-ing its operational capacity.”

“Aerogaviota daily f lights from Havana to the Cayo Las

La Estrella Village. Photo: TTC.

France has a beautiful group of faraway islands and paradises, disseminated throughout the planet, among which the

French West Indies stand out, made up by the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe and their islets, located to the west of the Carib-bean.

Each one offers different climates, spec-tacular seas, unique landscapes, cultures and authentic traditions, as well as a prodigious nature and the hospitality of its local inhabit-ants. All this makes the French Overseas De-partments (since 1946) places of great tourist interest.

Martinique, known as The Island of Flow-ers, is located to the south of the islands of Guadeloupe. With a length of 80 km and a width of 39 km, it offers around 1,000 km2 of tropical bliss. This island, which emerged from the volcanic arc, is agreeably cooled by the trade winds.

The north is dominated by the 1,397 meters of the Montagne Pelée, surrounded by a for-est that promises magnificent walks, while the

Plage Caravelle. Photo: Comité du Tourisme des Iles de Guadeloupe.

French Caribbean: a Garden of Eden

mixture of urban cities, rural hamlets, tropical forests and isolated beaches.

Interesting places to visit…Place de la Vic-torie, Aquarium, Gosier tourist center, Morne-à-L’Eau Cemetery. Archaeological Museum and Park, Fort Napoleon, Saint François, Chutes du Carbet waterfall, Guadeloupe Nat-ural Park, Maison de la Forêt, Pointe-à-Pitre beach and the Soufrière Volcano.

AIRPORTSPointe-à-Pitre Le Raizet International Air-

port (Guadeloupe); L’Espérance or Grand Case Airport (Saint Martin); Saint-Barthélemy or St. Jean Gustaf III Airport; Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport, Fort-de-France.

AIRLINESAérogare Pôle Caraïbes, Air Antilles Ex-

press, Air Canada, Air Caraïbes, Air France, Air Tropical, American Airlines, American Eagle, Avior, Corsair, Delta Airlines, Liat, Ma-rie Galante Aviation, Oceair, US Airways, Wi-nair. ■

south offers a succession of extensive beaches and tranquil bays. The markets can be discov-ered in its capital, Fort-de-France, as well as museums like the one of History and Ethnog-raphy and, not very far away, the famous Bala-ta Garden, with more than 3,000 plant species.

Visitors can practice nautical activities – scuba diving, windsurfing, jet skiing, kite-surfing, catamaran tours, surfing or water skiing, in formulas combined with the other islands (Guadeloupe, Dominica or Saint Lu-cia); as well as trekking and tours on horseback in a secret and generous nature. There is also quad, canoe-kayak, golf, tours on helicopter, canyoning, mountain biking, fishing of large species and other attractions.

Guadeloupe and its five islets – Marie-Galante, Les Saintes, La Désirade, Saint-Barthélemy and Saint Martin (one part) – al-so feature the same values. It is the center of Caribbean culture and emerged as a fusion of French and African influences. Known for its sugar and rum as well as for its beaches, this provincial archipelago displays a seducing

11TRAVEL TRADE CARIBBEAN • YEAR XII • ISSUE 212 • SEPTEMBER 2012

tioned destination for Incentives since it has a lot to say and show, while offering a value for money favorable for this modality.”

“The third element is the most difficult, individual tourism,” he continued, of a very stable issuance and which has been increas-ing its percentage of participation in the French market. “We design a la carte tours, according to the menu of offers, and tailor made, which is when we create the product.”

The Cuban destinations chosen depend on the market. For Nature tourism, the coun-try’s three most important mountain mass-es: Viñales-Sierra del Rosario, in the west; Topes de Collantes in the center; and Bara-coa in the eastern region. Half of its individ-ual clients make a complete tour of the island to Santiago de Cuba. The Incentive groups prefer Havana-Varadero and the triangular Havana-Trinidad-Cayo Santa María. Unfor-tunately, Trinidad has a limited infrastruc-ture for this segment. He explained that when Trinidad increases its hotel capacities, as planned, it would be necessary to guar-antee the aircraft, always necessary for this operation.

It does not offer a French Imprint Route in Cuba, about which he says “much is still needed to transform that patrimony into a tourist product.”

Cuba Autrement uses Air France-KLM which in the winter has 14 weekly f lights to Cuba. ■

touch.” Another modality it markets is In-centives, because “Cuba is a very well posi-

Stéphane Ferrux.

For more than 15 years, the French tour operator Cuba Autrement has brought to Cuba an annual average of 3,000 tourists

– 80% are French; the rest are French-speak-ers like Belgians, Swiss and Canadians, in addition to Italians. It represents 80% of the Nature tourism clients for the French mar-ket. Its director, Mr. Stéphane Ferrux, gave an interview to TTC, parts of which we are publishing in this article.

“For the French the principal motivation to come to Cuba,” said Ferrux, “is the cul-ture, the people feel there is an affinity be-tween the French and Cubans.” Out of the average 10-day stay, the clients of Cuba Au-trement dedicate only three to the beach, the rest to culture and nature.

Represented in Cuba by the Destino World Company, and supported by a team of 15 persons, it supplies agencies or tour opera-tors – they make up 85% of its clients. It has worked, always focused on specialized tour-ism, in keeping with the French and Euro-pean tendency, with several Cuban tour op-erators (Paradiso, Gaviota, San Cristóbal, Cubanacán and Cubatur) and for a year now, with Destino World, it has been represented by Ecotur.

Out of its three principal elements, Nature tourism plays the leading role, including in it Sports tourism like bicycle racing, not for ex-cursions. Ferrux explains that “a walk for a French person always has to have a cultural

Cuba Autrement


vana, was done by Jean-Baptiste Vermay, painter of Napoleon I and the teacher of the daughter of Josephine Beauharnais.

In Vieques Island (Puerto Rico), founded by the French, some barrios conserve French names and there is still a small community of French people. Basseterre, capital of Saint Kitts-Nevis, is testimony of the colonial past because of the French influence in its architec-ture. The Dominican La Tumba is one of the many examples of that culture in Caribbean music. ■

er, capital and machinery to work the crops, and left outstanding cultural imprints.

As well as the French Antilles, other Carib-bean islands keep alive the imprint of France, and display it in their cultural tourist char-acter. In Cuba… La Cabaña Fortress and the Morro Castle of Havana exhibit the legacy of their military architecture; the ruins of French coffee plantations survive and the most com-plete French pharmacy outside France remains intact; the painting on display in El Templete, depicting the foundational ceremony of Ha-

Visualizing today the indelible French im-print in the insular Caribbean reveals this event as a transcendental episode that had

an impact on the social, economic and cultural spheres of the region, a legacy that has become nowadays a tourist attribute as part of the re-gional identity. In addition to contributing to the development of programs and projects es-pecially related to French-speaking cultural tourism.

The French colonization in the Caribbean took place in the 17th century, with the aim of establishing a trade route for the sugar cane plantations and at the beginning involved the islands of Saint Kitts – the first -, Guadeloupe and Martinique. Subsequently, the western part of La Hispaniola was ceded to France, where at present the Republic of Haiti is located.

The French immigrants who passed through those islands contributed experience, manpow-

French Imprint in the Caribbean

Urban Historic Center of Cienfuegos.

eliminate architectural barriers, and there are diverse regulating norms.

2. Flight of public administrations to typical instruments of Private Law, creating personifications of diverse nature (agencies, pub-lic companies, foundations, etc.).

3. Guarantee or protection for tourists and the tourist assets (natural and cultural environ-ment).Since it is a transversal disci-

pline, tourism is influenced by many sectorial regulations: Ur-banism, Organization of the ter-ritory, Environment, Industry, Coasts, Immigration, Safety, Con-sumer protection, Issuing of titles, Nationality, Currency and mon-ey exchange, Transportation, In-frastructures, Communications, Legislation on historic heritage, etc.

Out of the international orga-nizations UNESCO stands out, by declaring the world heritage sites, as well as the World Tourism Or-ganization, which issues docu-ments with a global reach, like the Tourist Code and the World Eth-ics Code for Tourism. Meanwhile, the Norms of the European Union have given a plus to the protec-tion of tourists and the European funds have served for the develop-ment of rural tourism. ■

Another aspect deals with the Characteristics of Tourism Law:

1. Securing quality. A response to mass tourism because trav-elers move due to curiosity or adventure, while tourists do so for comfort and service qual-ity. Today there is a tendency to

equate juridical statute built on the central pillar of Tourism Law. It is indispensable to regulate their rights, complaints, claims and ar-bitration mechanisms and resolve speedily and efficiently the conflicts between tourists and operators, as well as the freedom of movement, passports or visas.

The lecture Law and Tourism giv-en by Dr. F. Javier Melgosa Ar-cos, professor of the University

of Salamanca, Spain, at the 2nd In-ternational Convention of Tourism Studies in Havana, was based on the premise that to learn the precepts of Tourism Law it is necessary to resort to the principles and techniques of Civil, Commercial, Administrative, Tax Law, not forgetting Labor Law.

From the subjective point of view, Dr. Melgosa continued, public ad-ministrations, operators and tour-ist companies and the client-tourist are involved, and from the objective point of view, the protection of assets – coasts, cultural and natural patri-monies and others – and of the tour-ist services – transportation, accom-modations.

The role of Public Administra-tions is centered on the promotion of the destinations, the protection of the tourist user, citizen safety, infor-mation for tourists and transporta-tion.

Companies and operators: There is a statutory regimen (individual companies, societies), and they have their own means and instruments (publicity, brands, contracts, cards, travelers checks) with their own tax and labor contracting singularities. New models of companies emerge every day.

The tourist, the leading star, has to be protected through an ad-

Dr. F. Javier Melgosa Arcos, professor of the University of Salamanca. Photo: TTC.

Law and Tourism

13TRAVEL TRADE CARIBBEAN • YEAR XII • ISSUE 212 • SEPTEMBER 2012

Pocket watch given to

Dr. Antommarchi by Na-

poleon in his death bed.

Photo: TTC.

1928, under the romantic allu-sion of La Dolce Dimora, which was the original home of one of the great spirits of indepen-dence and liberalism - Cuban liberation army colonel, of Na-poleonic origin, Orestes Ferrara. In keeping with he who started off his military career as a sim-ple infantry soldier and reached the rank of colonel in the Cuban battle fields, was a university professor, diplomat and journal-ist, he appealed to the exclusive-ness of the Govantes y Cavarro-cas firm, the same that designed the Havana Capitol building and the National Library, for the construction of the Florentine renaissance style mansion. ■

The Napoleonic Museum of Havana amasses some 8,000 museum pieces of high pat-

rimonial value. Since December 1961 it is home to one of the most complete collections on the Na-poleonic era outside France.

Its collections fundamentally come from the amassment pro-moted for years by sugar mag-nate Julio Lobo, considered one of the wealthiest men at the tri-umph of the revolution on Janu-ary 1, 1959.

One of the most impor-tant objects that stand out is the death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, made in plaster by his doctor François Antom-marchi, who after the emperor’s death (1821) traveled to Cuba in 1837 and settled in the eastern part of the island until his death.

Among the most recently ac-quired pieces is a pocket watch donated by Cuban President Raúl Castro, which belonged to the abovementioned doctor and which was given to him by Na-poleon himself in his deathbed.

These pieces exemplify, to-gether with a multitude of objects that make up an entire symbolic universe of the reconstruction of an age, between the French Revolu-tion and the Second Empire, a beautiful legacy of the Cuban and universal cultural heritage.

The museum is housed in a luxurious mansion inaugurated in

■ Julio Antonio Gómez Díazprofessor of the Don Fernando Ortiz faculty, University of Havana.

Napoleon’s death mask made in plaster by his doctor, François Antommarchi.

Photo: TTC.

Napoleonic Museum in Havana


Saturdays) and from the Boston Logan International (Saturdays).

The company announced that it also plans to incorporate Cartagena de Indias starting November, with the option of traveling from New York-JFK to the Colombian Carib-bean port city, three times a week.

INTERJET CONNECTS MEXICO CITY WITH NEW YORKInterjet inaugurated a direct

daily f light between Mexico City and New York. It departs from New York-JFK at 7:25 a.m., be-tween Mondays and Fridays, and at 10:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; and on the return trip leaves from Mexico City’s airport at 4:40 p.m., arriving at JFK at 10:30 p.m.

the Tocumen International Air-port in Panama City.

JETBLUE ANNOUNCES FLIGHTS TO GRAND CAYMAN AND CARTAGENA DE INDIASOperated with a fleet of A320s,

starting November 15 JetBlue Air-ways will offer three weekly flights to Owen Roberts International Airport in Grand Cayman from New York-JFK (Thursdays and

NEW MEXICO-CUBA AIR ROUTECubana Airlines inaugurat-

ed the Mexico City-Santa Clara route. With a weekly frequency, the service will be operated on TU 204s for 170 passengers.

COPA OPENS TWO ROUTES FROM PANAMA CITYCopa Airlines opened a new

route to connect Panama City with the Peruvian city of Iquitos, whose itinerary will be of two weekly frequencies, Wednesdays and Saturdays, departing from Panama to Iquitos at 11:36 a.m. and returning at 14:59 p.m.

On the other hand, Las Vegas has become the seventh U.S. des-tination with which Copa links

ITALY, CUBA AND NICARAGUA LINKED BY BLUE PANORAMAThe Italian Blue Panorama

airline announced the operation of a new Rome-Havana-Mana-gua-Rome weekly f light, which will link the destinations of Italy, Cuba and Nicaragua.

ROUTE BETWEEN PUERTO RICO AND BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS OPENEDSeaborne Airlines will of-

fer, starting October 1, two daily f lights between the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Terrence B. Lettsome, in the is-land of Tortola, British Virgin Is-lands.

N E W A I R C O N N E C T I O N S I N T H E C A R I B B E A NN E W A I R C O N N E C T I O N S I N T H E C A R I B B E A N

Brest and Toulon, which arrive in the Cuban airports of Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

Nouvelles Frontières has designed diverse of-fers in the French Antilles, some with the par-ticipation of TUI. In Martinique it goes to the sites of Fort-de-France, Le Carbet, Le Diamant Beach, Marouba, Anse à l’Ane, Les Trois Ilets, Sainte Luce, Tartane and Schoelcher; and in Guadeloupe, to Saint François, Le Manganao, Gosier, Grande-Terre, Basse-Terre, Deshaies, Saint François, Sainte Anne, Sainte Rose and Pointe-à-Pitre.

Expanding its operation to other Caribbe-an destinations, Nouvelles Frontières offers in the Dominican Republic the tourist centers of Bayahibe, La Romana, Boca Chica and Punta Cana – Bavaro and Cabeza de Toro beaches; in Cuba the Havana-Varadero combinations and more than a dozen packages in Varadero; and in the Mexican Caribbean, to a dozen offers to Playa del Carmen is added others to Akumal, Tulum, Puerto Morelos, Puerto Aventuras, Kantenah and Playa Paraíso.

Meanwhile, Frame includes in its portfolio circuits to the French Caribbean: in Martinique – Sainte Luce, Les Trois-Ilets, La pointe du bout, Sainte Luce and Anse à l’Ane – and in Guade-loupe – Gosier and Saint-François. In other Ca-ribbean tourist spots it has offers for Varadero, Cuba; Punta Cana, Bayahibe and La Romana in the Dominican Republic; and the Riviera Maya in Mexico. ■

mal, Cobá, Ek Balam and Tulum; it guaran-tees the flow of tourists with the companies Air France and Iberia, with programs from Paris, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Mulhouse and Strasbourg, entering through the Mexican airports of Mexico City and Cancun.

The Cuba destinations marketed by Vacanc-es Transat are Havana, Varadero, Cienfuegos, Trinidad, Santiago de Cuba, Viñales, Sanc-ti Spíritus, Santa Clara, Baracoa, Cayo Santa María and Camagüey, using Air France, Iberia and Cubana Airlines planes, from the French airports of Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Mulhouse, Nantes, Strasbourg,

Among the tour operators that market in France the Caribbean region there are three that stand out for the diversity of of-

fers, taking into account the information taken from their websites: Vacances Transat, Nou-velles Frontières and Frame.

With departures from Lyon, Marseille, Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes and Toulouse, using Air France flights, and arriving in the Punta Cana airport, Vacances Transat organizes pro-grams to Bayahibe and Punta Cana, in the Do-minican Republic. On the Mexican Caribbean strip, it operates the destinations of Cancun, Campeche, Valladolid, Mérida and the impor-tant Mayan sites of Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Iza-

Tulum, Mexican Caribbean.

French Markets’ Tour Operations with Caribbean Destination

TTC 2012 No 212 (TopResa) English

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