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Chinese-Cuban hotel planned

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-19 10:45

Carnival Corp's Victory, one of the seven ships docked at the Port of Miami, Florida. Future US tourists appear to be the target market for Chinese-Cuban hotel that will be built in Cuba. [Agencies]

The Hemingway Hotel may have an American ring to it, but it is the name of a Chinese-Cuban venture with an apparent eye on the US market, tourism industry sources said.

State-run Suntine International-Economic Trading Company of China and Cuba's Cubanacan hotel group are partners in the project, which will be a 600-room luxury hotel, the sources, who asked not to be identified, said recently.

The project's groundbreaking is scheduled later this year.

Future US tourists appear to be the target market for the hotel that will be built on the grounds of the sprawling Hemingway Marina just west of Havana, Cuba.

Renovations are already under way at the marina, named after famed US author Ernest Hemingway who resided in Cuba for many years.

Cuba is just 90 miles (144.8 km) south of Key West, Florida.

The United States has long banned most of its citizens from visiting Cuba under a 47-year-old US trade embargo against the island.

However, US President Barack Obama has said he wants improved relations between the two countries.

Obama has lifted restrictions on Cuban-American travel to Cuba, and bills are pending in the US Congress that would eliminate the ban on general travel to Cuba.

Cuba was a popular US tourist destination before the island's 1959 revolution.

Passage of the travel bills is not assured because of opposition, particularly among Cuban-Americans, to renewing ties with the current Cuban government.

Citic Construction, the main contractor for the Beijing Olympic Games, and the Cuban Construction Ministry will build the proposed Hemingway Hotel.

At a Havana meeting this month, the Chinese and Cuban partners set a November start date for construction, diplomatic sources said, although such plans are often delayed for logistical reasons.

Neither Suntine International nor Cubanacan were immediately available for comment on the project.

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With the prospect of better relations between Havana and Washington, and President Raul Castro widely seen as more pragmatic than his brother Fidel Castro, other foreign investors also are positioning themselves for a new era.

Raul Castro, 78, took over the Cuban presidency from Fidel Castro, 83, last year.

Tourism industry sources said they had noticed an increased interest in hotel construction.

The sources said representatives from some major US hotel companies had quietly visited this year.

Qatar and Cuba signed an agreement in May to build a $75 million luxury hotel on Cuba's Cayo Largo.

China's Suntine, with a 49 percent stake, is providing $150 million for the Hemingway Hotel project. Cubanacan, with 51 percent ownership, is providing the land and other resources, the sources said.

Suntine and Cubanacan also are joint venture partners in a 700-room luxury hotel in Shanghai's Pudong business district that is managed by Spain's Sol Melia.

China is Cuba's second-largest economic partner after Venezuela. There have been a number of Chinese-Cuban ventures in other sectors such as oil, pharmaceuticals, health care and telecommunications.