The Ecotur Travel Agency is the only incoming agency specialized in nature, adventure and rural tourism in Cuba. Whose attractive and unique products broaden the island destination’s offers.
In an interview with Prensa Latina, the agency’s deputy director, Magela Solana, explained that Ecotur today has the strength of sharing business with several international operators. That allow them to have the means to create offers for those seeking to immerse themselves in Cuba’s essence.
This, together with all the specialization of their guides and qualified personnel for the type of tourism they manage. Ensures a high quality offer for visitors who choose to explore the island with Ecotur and live unforgettable experiences, Solana commented.
Ecotur, she continued, also has alliances with several agrotourism farms, collaborations that enrich the catalog of experiences and promote authentic rural tourism on the island. For a deep immersion in local life and its most deeply rooted customs.
Similarly, Ecotur cooperates with the Agrarian University of Havana. Whose projects expand the agency’s possibilities and new perspectives for the development of sustainable activities.
Solana added that given Cuba’s Afro-Cuban heritage and the existence of Yemayá temples that exhibit their ancestral traditions. The tour operator she manages promotes visits to those places where visitors can discover the local spirituality and culture. As well as enrich their experience in the Caribbean destination.
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector’s trends changed, which forced the industry to rethink its strategies as travelers began to look for other experiences and less massiveness. In the case of Cuba, the offer diversified beyond the traditional sun and beach that characterizes the island, she explained.
The health crisis, she said, forced us all to restructure, to think differently. Although Ecotur already had a different vision, focused on practices in outdoor environments and natural spaces that implied a smaller number of visitors to protect the environment.
The offers included safaris, bike rides in the tourist Viñales -in the western province of Pinar del Rio-, and among its mogotes. Horseback riding and cycling tourism they found new audiences.
We did not conceive Cuba as a 100 percent sun and beach tourism. On the contrary, we wanted to show that other part of the country that was perhaps hidden, she reflected.
ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE TOURISM?
Ecotur does not limit itself when it comes to diversifying proposals and pleasing its clients. One of the activities in which it is a pioneer is accessible tourism, since by offering solutions for different types of travelers. It guarantees the inclusion of all in the programs, regardless of their physical conditions, she remarked. They facilitate the use of scooters (vehicles for people with reduced mobility). Thus ensuring a comfortable trip to the destinations and visitors can fully enjoy the excursions through Cuban landscapes.
They also have runflash trains, which include a space adapted for wheelchairs, for people with reduced mobility so that they can travel comfortably and autonomously. In addition, on board there are televisions that show images and content with subtitled information, focused on visually impaired customers.
CHINESE MARKET
Referring to the Chinese market, Solana explained that the agency identifies a growing demand from this segment. Visitors who are looking for new experiences and a deeper contact with the culture. Hence the importance of adapting to these new trends.
She specified that they are looking beyond traditional tourism and in her opinion there is a growing interest in cultural and adventure products that connect them with the authenticity of the destination.
Chinese tourists, according to the requests the agency receives, want unique products and offers that are singular in Cuba. They are looking for exclusivity, and Ecotur is working to meet these specific requests with innovative proposals, she added.
The 43rd International Tourism Fair (FitCuba 2025), held from April 30th to May 2nd, was precisely dedicated to China as the guest of honor. A sign of the importance the country attaches to these travelers.
ECOTUR AT FITCUBA
For Cuba’s largest tourism exchange, Ecotur decided to share its exhibition space with other players. Moreover which allowed it to negotiate directly with clients and demonstrate what it could offer with great detail and professionalism. As well as showcase the strengths of its products and services, said Solana.
On that stage, they organized meetings in motor homes, used CamperTour units. A service that the agency actively promotes, and the three-wheeled motorcycles and jeeps of the tour operator Aikiritour complemented the mobility and adventure offer for visitors.
Among the novelties exhibited at FitCuba, they presented some tents that can be installed on the jeep. An innovative proposal that Ecotur could place in several places of nature and thus appreciate the Cuban natural environment in a special and close way.
Also in the agro-tourist farms, visitors tasted traditional dishes such as boniatillos and tamales, and other Cuban products that showed the authenticity of the island and its flavors more rooted to the land. Some elements that constitute strengths of the agency and reinforce Ecotur’s alliances to promote local development.
In that regard, she said that next October Cuba will host the 10th Ibero-American Meeting of Rural Tourism, an international event of great relevance for the sector and of which Ecotour is the official receptive.
All the agency’s proposals aim to show that traveling with Ecotour is to live the adventure of our destination, of our Unique Cuba, she concluded.
With information from Teyuné Díaz Díaz/Redacción de Economía de Prensa Latina
Translated by Aliani Rojas Fernandez
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