Cuba Signs Deal to Build Megabuck Project in Pinar del Rio

The articles of incorporation between the companies La Playa Golf & Resorts International Panamá S.A. and CUBAGOLF SA, was signed Friday at FITCUBA 2017, an event in which both companies agreed to create the Punta Colorada, S.A. joint venture, which in its first phase of development will build two 18-hole golf courses, 1,500 guestrooms, a 300-slip marina, a convention center, as well as sports fields, nautical points, sport fishing, among other associated facilities.

Jaume Roma, President and Attorney of La Playa Golf Resort International, Panama S.A., and Raudel García, General Director of CUBAGOLF, S.A., were accompanied by Yuslenia Samuell, MINTUR Business Director; Devora María Enriquez Lorenzo, delegate of MINTUR in Pinar del Río; Abelardo Fernández Falero, President of the CUBASOL Group, and Jorge Luis Acosta de Paula, Director of Palmares.

Considered as one of the most important tourism-oriented development projects agreed upon in FITCUBA 2017, Punta Colorada will cover some 3,500 hectares in the municipalities of Sandino, Guane and Mantua, in the Guanahacabibes Peninsula, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The company will be dedicated to the construction, development and management of investments, by itself or through third parties, and the subsequent exploitation of tourism facilities, called Punta Colorada Golf Touristic Complex, with a capital stock of 15 million Cuban Convertible Pesos.

On the foreign side, Jaume Roma pointed out that Punta Colorada should become "one of the world’ finest travel destinations ". He emphasized the new company’s commitment to environmental protection and pointed out that Punta Colorada "will breathe peace, health and safety, forming part of the DNA of the development of the project."

Raudel García, representing the Cuban side, told Caribbean News Digital that this project will have benefits not only for the tourism sector, but for the whole country. "Today the world moves 40 million golfers, with the United States as the most important country, but it is a kind of travel that spends four times more than conventional tourism." What we will build there are almost cities, with real estate facilities, recreation, marines, convention centers, etc. All this much while respecting the designs and concepts of environmental protection," he concluded.

Punta Colorada S.A. must reach 7 golf courses in 25 years, and is the third company that CUBAGOLF manages on the Island. The other two are Carbonera and Bello Monte, out of a total of 13 that are expected to be founded in coming years.