Destinations

Iberostar Raises The Bar In Cuba


Iberostar Hotels & Resorts is upping its game in Cuba.

Not only has the company, which has a portfolio of more than 120 four-and-five star hotels in 18 countries across three continents, significantly increased the number of properties and hotel rooms in the Caribbean destination, but it’s continuing to raise quality standards across the board to be in line with its global operations, writes assistant editor, Ann Ruppenstein in this week’s issue of Canadian Travel Press.

“Our position in Cuba, our approach to the future is to be leaders in quality, leaders in number of hotels and leaders in number of rooms,” Óscar González, global marketing director at Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, tells Canadian Travel Press from the company’s headquarters in Spain. “Iberostar is putting all kinds of efforts on increasing the knowledge of staff in order to enhance the best practices of service, the best practices in gastronomy, and trying to adapt our standards of quality so that we’re applying the same level in Cuba as we’re applying in the European region, as we’re applying in other Caribbean destinations.”

Along with increasing the level of service in the popular destination for Canadian travellers, a big push has been on elevating the food scene through the launch of a hotel logistics and wholesale distributor in Cuba, Logística Hotelera del Caribe S.A., with the aim of consistently raising the culinary quality and the variety of product in the destination.

Through the operation, a wide range of products are now distributed to nine of its hotels on the island, including newly opened properties like the Iberostar Grand Packard and Iberostar Holguín.

“That was one of the main gaps in the past, when you visited Cuba as a regular tourist, you’d find that there is a gap in the service and there is a gap in the variety and the range of food you can find in the destination,” he said. “The plans of Iberostar to achieve the same level of quality in Cuba has been to operate the first logistics platform to import all kinds of goods to have the same level of food and services and items as in other destinations, so we’re very proud to put this in practice since more or less the last quarter of the last year. This logistics warehouse has started to provide to our hotels in order to increase the standards of quality, the visibility and the variety of fruits, vegetables, meat that you can find in the buffets, in the restaurants.”

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Canadian Travel Press.