Newcomers in Cuba's Nature Travel

CAMPISMO POPULAR OPENS UP TO FOREIGN INVESTMENT AS A WAY TO BOOST THE NATURAL CHARMS THE LARGEST CARIBBEAN ISLAND HAS TO OFFER

With 38 years under its belt, Campismo Popular seeks to get a new lease on life, Gabriela Molina Gonzalez, the company's general mana-ger for Development, Quality and Business told Excelencias in an exclusive interview. She also commented on both new challenges and projections in the midsize and short terms.

Campismo boasts four international villas: Aguas Claras and Laguna Grande, in Pinar del Río; El Saltón in Santiago de Cuba, and Guajimico in Cienfuegos. All four promote nature tourism, and as this is increasingly becoming a trendy niche, the entity has decided to embrace foreign investment in a bid to renew its offers and have access to external financing.

In 2018, Campismo Popular added half a dozen projects to the Business Opportunity Portfolio, as alternatives for massive sun-and-beach tourism and city travel. “In Pinar del Río, in Minas de Matahambre, we can create the Villa Brisas del Mar, where the facility belonging to the Copey Brisas del Mar complex is currently located. The 20-room project would be an accommodation option for visitors to Cayo Jutías,” the executive explained.

Two upscale camping sites related to nature parks are also in the works: El Narigón and Escaleras de Jaruco, important spaces for visitors who stay in Havana and want to enjoy nature tourism. Today, in order to enjoy those activities, traveler

ought to move to Las Terrazas, Soroa or Topes de Collantes. The campsites of Villa Guajimico and Cangilones del Río Máximo in Camaguey, and the one in Playa Larga, an international camping site located in Santiago de Cuba, are added to the list.

“We are focused on nature tourism, mainly for ecological-oriented trippers who are sensitive to the practice of sustainable and self-sufficient tourism. The promotion of these projects included in the Portfolio targets foreign businesspeople with experience in the management of this kind of tourism product by the hand of International Economic Partnerships under financed Service Management Contracts,” he went on to say.

“We have decided that Guajimico is the first foreign investment project to get going, due to its potentials for the advance of this kind of product and for its privileged location halfway between Cienfuegos and Trinidad, for its undisputed beauties and for the acclaim it has among international tourists. There is also an important diving center which has international guarantees in more than 20 diving sites featuring topquality waters and a superb marine environment. This much makes it one of the favorite places for the cruise passengers that arrives in the bay of Cienfuegos. We hope that this only is the beginning of a new stage for nature tourism in Cuba, putting Campismo Popular right in the limelight in this particular niche,” she concluded.