Cuba to strengthen capacities for sustainable tourism in the country

CIEGO DE AVILA, Cuba, Nov 14 (ACN) A training program, scheduled for 2024, aims to incorporate biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation into the operations of managers and workers of hotel facilities in the tourist destinations of Varadero and Jardines del Rey, in the central provinces of Matanzas and Ciego de Avila, respectively.

Zehnia Cuervo Reinoso, technical coordinator of the international Sustainable Tourism project, with intervention sites in the aforementioned sun and beach destinations, stressed that the training of key actors in the sector will favor the fulfillment of the objectives of this global initiative related to the sustainable management of natural resources and energy efficiency.

She considered that the training of key players in the so-called entertainment industry is essential for them to become aware of the actions to be carried out by the project in 15 hotel facilities belonging to the Cubanacan and Gran Caribe chains, including some that operate with prestigious foreign tourism companies such as Meliá, Iberostar, Blau, Roc, Muthu and Accor.

Cuervo Reinoso detailed that they are organizing training activities with prestigious international consultants on sustainable tourism, in addition to workshops to improve the legal-administrative subsystem and expeditions to check biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems and the health of coral reefs and grasses in the diving spots of Hicacos, Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo.

International experts will offer methodological advice for the design and implementation of practices aimed at rehabilitating coral reefs and seagrasses, as well as the updating and validation of a methodology to create nature-based tourism products.

To address threats, work will be carried out to reduce pressures and greenhouse gas emissions, with demonstrative practices aimed at rehabilitating ecosystems on a territorial scale, and the direct mitigation of substances that are harmful to nature, by increasing energy efficiency and introducing technological solutions in hotels.

Sustainable tourism is financed by the global environment fund and the Cuban ministries of tourism; science, technology and the environment; agriculture and higher education; and implements the National Economic and Social Development Plan through 2030, and the Climate Change Plan (" Tarea Vida").