Between January and September 2024, the regime of Miguel Díaz-Canel in Cuba invested 4.6 times more in Business services, real estate and rental activities – which includes the construction of hotels– that in the sum of Agriculture, Education and Healthaccording to the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI) published this Friday and collated by the news agency EFE.
If the investments are divided by segments, the section Business services, real estate and rental activities accumulated 26.6% of the total investment executed from January to Septemberwhich reached 64,973.3 million Cuban pesos (2,707 million dollars, at the official exchange rate for the State).
The budget allocated to the construction of hotels is the subject of controversy in Cuba due to the serious crisis in which the island is immersed and the difficulties that the tourism sector (controlled by the State) is facing to recover the levels of visitors from before the pandemic.
Until last October, Cuba received 1.8 million international travelers, 6.5% less than in the same period in 2023. In 2018 and 2019 the annual figure ranged between 4.2 and 4.6 million foreign tourists.
Independent economists, mostly residents abroad, have criticized the high state investments in the hotel sector to the detriment of other strategic areas, such as agriculture, where production is at a minimum.
The Cuban regime, however, continues to bet on tourism as the locomotive of the country’s economy. In previous years it had been one of the main sources of income and foreign exchange along with professional services and remittances.
In 2023, the Cuban gross domestic product (GDP) registered a drop of 1.9%according to official data, and the Cuban regime has already stated that the national economy will not grow this year either.
In absolute terms, the island allocated a total of 17,311.4 million Cuban pesos (about 721.3 million dollars) until September to the section of Business Services, real estate and rental activities.
The figure contrasts with the 1,829.3 million Cuban pesos (76 million dollars) in agriculture; the 1,205.2 million Cuban pesos (50.2 million dollars) in public health and the 671.3 million (27.9 million dollars) in education. With respect to these areas, the expenditure on tourism was 9, 14 and 26 times greater, respectively.
In the first half of the year, Cuba increased investment in hotels and restaurants by 112% annually – more than doublewhile it decreased by more than 20% in education, construction and public administration, according to the ONEI.
(With information from EFE)
