After Fidel Castro, the Republic of Cuba has a new Prime Minister. With the new era for Cuba, the importance of the travel and tourism industry rose to another level, when the long-time serving Cuban minister of tourism Manuel Marrero was named prime minister for a 5-year term. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel made the announcement on Saturday. During Marrero’s term as a tourism minister, Cuban tourism witnessed massive resilience.
Under the new constitutional provisions, he was approved unanimously by the National Assembly to serve the same day. Fidel Castro was the country’s last prime minister. He held the post from 1959 to December 1976, when he took the title of president of the State Council, a title that replaced the posts of president and prime minister.
The Prime Minister of Cuba, known as the President of the Council of Ministers between 1976 and 2019, is the head of the Council of Ministers of Cuba. The office of Prime Minister was first instituted in 1940 in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of Cuba as amended in that year.
The new prime minister, 56 years old, is an architect-engineer and began his working life in 1990 as an investor at the Gaviota Tourism Group in the eastern Holguin province.
In 2004 he was appointed as the minister of tourism, a position he has performed to date. In his new position, Marrero will be accompanied by six deputy prime ministers, among whom stands out Commander Ramiro Valdes, one of the historical leaders of the Cuba Revolution and close collaborator of former presidents Fidel and Raul Castro.
The other deputy prime ministers are hitherto the vice presidents of the Council of Ministers or cabinet, Roberto Morales Ojeda, Ricardo Cabrisas, Ines Maria Chapman and Jose Luis Tapia. The team is completed with the current Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil, who maintains that portfolio.
Marrero’s appointment is considered another step in the generational replacement of the island’s leadership since the founding fathers of the Cuban revolution are aged 80 and more.
Cuba welcomed more than 4.7 million tourists last year, 1.1 million of them Canadian.
According to their website, the Tourism group Gaviota S.A was founded in 1988. They currently operate more than 27,000 rooms all over the island.
Hotels can be found in beach resorts like Varadero, Holguin, and the Northern Coast of Cuba, in natural and different environments like Topes de Collantes and Cape of San Antonio, or in iconic cities such as Havana, Baracoa, and Santiago de Cuba.
Despite US Sanctions, American Tourists also play a major role in the tourism-dependent currency earner for the Caribbean Island State.
