Cuban Tourist Agency bets on Russian oil workers as prime costumers

Cuba’s leading tourist agency Havanatur is currently betting on potential Russian customers among the employees of the state-owned oil giant Rosneft, as part of its strategy to secure its current niche in the Russian market.    

Speaking in the sidelines of Moscow International Tourism Fair, MITT 2025, Havanatur Varadero Branch’s director Pedro Orlando Perez told Prensa Latina that the employees from the Rosneft oil company are currently among the main Russian visitors to Cuba.

“The agreement reached between our agency and Rosneft is historical, as a project that grows in importance every year, especially in Varadero, where by March 28 we will be welcoming the first batch of tourists of 2025, with six other groups arriving during the rest of the year,” Pérez specified.

According to the Havanatur executive this program focusing on Rosneft’s workers and their families, is being developed hand in hand with partner group Havanatur International-Russia, which has allowed the Cuban entity to establish new connections and reach to foreign contacts.

The Cuban executive added that Havanatur is also bent on promoting other relevant tourist modalities, such as events and circuits that make Cuba a particular destination.

As the island strives to diversify tourist offers, it also seeks to renovate its hotel infrastructure, which includes more than 80,000 rooms, with 75 percent of them being four- and five-star facilities, he said.

Pérez expounded that many of these facilities are suitable for accommodating cultural, sports, scientific, business and health events, among others.

Havanatur Varadero does not give up upon its traditional markets, however, as in the case of Canada, and so it has joined the Hola Caribe Sol agency in expanding and designing new attractions, with special emphasis this season on visits to Matanzas city.

Pérez described Mitt Moscow 2025 as a great event, serving as a showcase to promote their tourism products and increase the visibility of the Havanatur brand in the Russian market.