Cuban President Fidel Castro said that multi-destination tourism could spur Caribbean integration. In a contribution during one of the work sessions of the Special Meeting of Caribbean heads of state, Castro said that multi-destination tourism is an alternative as tourism brings trade, investments and bilateral contacts. "We could project ourselves to the world as an attractive single destination, at the same time diverse, and an example in areas of preservation of the ecology and natural resources," he said. He said that Cuba should not be seen as a competitor for the tourist market share, rather as a partner and close collaborator. The National Association of Hotels and Restaurants, despite recently rejecting the selling of DR and Haiti multi-destination travel packages, said it favors the selling of multi-destination packages with Cuba and the Caribbean. Earlier in the week, former Dominican Minister of Tourism, Fernando Rainieri forecast that the Dominican and Cuban vacation packages would be soon marketed as a travel package to the Caribbean by tour operators. Rainieri recently returned from a meeting of the Board of Advisors of the World Tourism Organization which took place in Washington, D.C.. He feels that Caribbean islands should not compete among each other, rather they should jointly exploit the area’s tourism potential. Rainieri said that the WTO expects the DR and Cuba to receive the larger share of tourism to the Caribbean given the greater growth potential due to the countries’ share of attractions and natural resources. Rainieri explained that growth of tourism will receive a boost as there is a growing trend in Europe for employees to receive four and five weeks of paid holiday time.
