New York, 14 November 2019. Once again the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States increases its actions against the development of Cuban Tourism, one of the main sources of revenue in the economy of the island. This Wednesday, Trivago, a German transnational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products in the hotel and lodging fields with head office in the United States, removed Cuba from its search platform due to the U.S. government's restrictive measures.
As a result, Cuban hotel facilities "disappear" from one of the main search platforms which offers travelers enough information to choose any destination in the world.
Although Canada remains Cuba’s top source of tourists and several nations have begun to be part of the markets interested in Havana, thanks to the Destination Cuba program launched by the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, there are foreign hotel companies such as the Spanish hotel chain Meliá Hotels International, which are already losing visibility in the aforementioned search platform.
Due to the extraterritorial nature of the blockade, backed by the enforcement of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, third-country companies have been forced to break off trade and exchange relationships with Cuba, since much of their capital or a significant number of their shares are tied to the U.S. dollar.
Manuel Marrero Cruz, Minister of Tourism, recently reported that damages in the leisure industry amount to about 38,722 million dollars, being the U.S. tourism the most affected by the restrictions of its own government. However, the TripAdvisor American website, which provides reviews of travel-related content, including personal experiences of travelers, places several Cuban hotels on its list of the most recommended destinations worldwide, including the Royalton Cayo Santa Maria, the Iberostar Gran Hotel Trinidad and the Meliá Cayo Coco just to mention a few.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations