Cuba has announced its intention to build more than 100,000 hotels rooms over the next 15 years to keep pace with soaring demand.
As a major part of the National Plan for Economic and Social Development, which was unveiled at the Cuban Communist Party Congress, some 108,000 new rooms will be built by 2030.
It also calls for other ‘non-hotel activities such as marinas and golf courses,’ said tourism minister Manual Marrero.
Marrero said tourism is now considered a ‘strategic sector that eventually would become a locomotive of the nation,’ as reported by Granma, the Communist Party daily.
"Tourism has a multiplier effect and the sector has the capacity to promote development of other areas of the economy to create productive linkages."
In the past five years Cuba has added more than 10,000 new rooms and rebuilt another 7,000.
There are now about 14,000 rooms available for rent in private homes.
Starwood Hotel & Resorts recently announced deals to become the first US based company for decades to operate hotels in Cuba.
In 2015 Cuba posted record tourist arrivals of more than 3.5 million.
