Canadian Cruise Ship Begins Travel Around Cuba

16 de diciembre de 2013, 11:19By Roberto F. Campos Havana, Dec 16 (Prensa Latina) After setting sail from Havana harbor early today, Canadian cruise ship “Louis Cristal” begins the Cuba Cruise program, as part of plans to increase trips of this kind in the archipelago.

During a presentation aboard, shortly before departing, Cuba Cruise President Dugald Wells expressed travel agents, executives, and journalists his satisfaction for the beginning of the route that took him four years of preparation.

Wells said he personally toured in a car all this island’s places to choose the docking ports, as well as having an excellent support by the members of the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, among other official entities.

He stated that severe contacts with authorities and many tourism professionals were already developed, and passengers supply, above all with German, Scandinavian and, of course, Canadian tourists, has already been confirmed with 132 tour-operators worldwide.

He also talked of existence of a U.S. non-lucrative organization with interests in those travels.

The trip will last seven days. After setting sail from Havana harbor, the cruise ship will stop over in Antilla, the eastern province of Holguin; Santiago de Cuba; Montego Bay (Jamaica); Punta Frances, in southern Isle of Youth; and will later return to Havana.

The Canadian executive stated that Cuba receives more than one million tourists per year, many of them have already visited the island seven times, and this trip proposes a new way to know the country.

A group of 20 artists, mostly Cubans, and Canadians, who are responsible for the night shows, are travelling aboard the ship, Wells said.

This project (www.cubacruise.com) is part of the 125 dockings of eight ships scheduled for this winter season of the Cuban tourism, starting November 1 through April 30, in many ports of the island.

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