Peanut butter and Nutella Canadian hotelier Blue Diamond promises at its ‘private key’ in Cuba

The Hotelier Canadian Blue Diamond ResortsFor this the Cuban government He exclusively entrusted the administration of your tourist destination South Key Largo, Havana also announced that it had granted them an import license allowing them to control their entry into the island’s territory South of Cuba.

In its first face-to-face meeting in more than two years, Sunwing Travel Group, owner of Blue Diamond Resorts, hosted the Sunwing Loves Cuba event, offering few details about how it plans to manage its 11 properties. Island, with a total of 1,348 bedrooms.

“Cuba is a very important place for us and we have grown tremendously over the years”said Eric Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Sunwing Travel Group.

“This, in addition to the development of Blue Diamond Resorts, has given us a unique position by allowing us to take over Key Largo in its entirety.”Cited by specialized media Travel Trade Caribbean.

According to Rodriguez, Exclusive import license for products like peanut butter, Nutella and ketchup available at resorts, which is not always the case. This, he said, “will allow us to control quality within the hotels.”

“A lot of synergies can be exploited. Instead of having ten different butchers, you can have one centralized one and instead of everyone doing it on their own, you can have a lot of common products centralized. It’s economies of scale, it’s the right to import, and quality control is a big thing,” the official said. celebrated

Blue Diamond Resorts, Sunwing’s hotel management company, brings tourists Canada For Cuba, now the second hotel chain in Cuba by number of roomsAfter Melia and ahead of Iberostar, both from Spain.

Mohamed Fawzi, general director of Blue Diamond Resorts Cuba, said of the exploitation of its facilities, “Currently we are at 50% of all our properties, and in the winter we expect 90% of the best accommodation” .

For his part, Rodriguez insisted on taking the rule into new territory: “We’ve never had a destination managed by a hotel company in Cuba. This is the first.”

Further, Cayo Largo del Sur’s new administrators seem to have dealt a decisive blow to the ETECSA telecommunications monopoly, as another decision they made was to eliminate scratch cards to connect to the Internet. Used by Cubans and foreign visitors. They’re going to push Wi-Fi into managed territory, they went ahead.

According to the report, flights from Canada to Key Largo International Airport will be easier for Canadians after health protocols imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic end. Starting in November there will be three direct flights from Canada, departing from Toronto, Montreal and Quebec.

Last May, Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism made an unprecedented announcement: Blue Diamond Resorts will exclusively manage the entire tourist area of ​​Cayo Largo del Sur, with 21 hotels on the island.From the high season of winter 2022-2023, close to the Isle of Youth.

Although Chavi’s management will be in partnership with the Cuban state agency Gran Caribe, This will include management of the island’s hotel and non-hotel facilitiesCuban officials want to boost foreign tourism.

Established in 2010, Blue Diamond is considered the fastest growing hotel group in the Caribbean.and Mexico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Antigua, Costa Rica, Barbados, Tobago and Granada have facilities, although they do not have as many hotels as in Cuba.

So far it manages 15,500 rooms in ten countries.