news agency

The first LGBT hotel in Cuba reopens in cayo paradisíaco

The Gran Muthu Rainbow Hotel is located in Cayo Guillermo in the province of Ciego de Ávila.

The sun bathes the large rainbow flag on the door of the first LGBT hotel in Cuba, which has just reopened to attract that tourist segment, at a time when the authorities are studying the approval of equal marriage on the island.

The Gran Muthu Rainbow Hotel, located in Cayo Guillermo in the province of Ciego de Ávila (east), had been inaugurated in December 2019, but very soon had to close due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Under all preventive sanitary measures, this five-star accommodation once again received its first clients since last November 15, when Cuba reopened its borders after 10 months of confinement.

With a hotel aimed especially at the gay community, Cuba is “taking important steps with the new family code,” he told AFP Marlis Delgado, Head of Sales for the lodging center, in reference to the text that is currently being analyzed by a legislative commission to approve equal marriage in the country.

“That means an advance for our society and having this hotel here on time” and another that will be inaugurated soon in Havana, “gives us the possibility that this family code has a slightly stronger foundation to be approved”, he considers Slim.

In the first weeks, Canadian tourists have been the most frequent visitors to the place surrounded by paradisiacal beaches, in addition to Cuban travelers, says Delgado.

“Very included”

For Kevin McGrath, a 37-year-old Canadian who enjoys the ocean-view pool, the hotel can be a source of inspiration for the government to make “the right changes for all LGBT people who come here to Cuba,” he says. “It is a cozy place and we feel very included,” he adds.

The text of the new family code, which would allow same-sex marriage in Cuba, is expected to be sanctioned by the National Assembly at the end of the year, to then be submitted to a national referendum in 2022.

The authorities tried to incorporate the issue into the Constitution approved in 2019, but the strong rejection it generated in the Evangelical Churches and other social sectors caused its discussion to be postponed.

Hotel managers now make sure that foreign clients have had a PCR test 72 hours before arriving in Cuba and that Cuban guests bring their cards with the complete vaccination schedule.

The tourism industry, the engine of the Cuban economy, suffered a severe blow from the pandemic. Now, the government expects to receive 100,000 visitors in the last 45 days of the year and by 2022 it expects 2 million tourists, a figure still far from the 4 million that entered annually before 2020.

“I think it is phenomenal, that it is a great entrance to the Caribbean especially Cuba, an adorable country that shows the world what you can do,” says Erick Hiller, another Canadian visitor who enjoys the beach on his second day of stay at the hotel.

Hiller is so excited that he considers the idea of ​​getting married in Cuba if the law passes.

“I think that is another incredible thing, in our country it was approved several years ago, we are seeing if it is eventually possible to get married here,” he confesses, next to his partner. (I)

You may also like

Hot News

TRENDING NEWS

Subscribe

follow us