According to the Diario de Cuba website, the Chamber of Commerce of Venezuelan state Nueva Esparta announced that a plane with a capacity for 20 tons of cargo will begin to fly between that territory and Havana so that Cubans can buy and carry more goods to the island, reported the newspaper Last News.
“In a year over 5,000 Cuban tourists have visited Isla Margarita, where they have spent approximately 17 million dollarswith the purchase of different items in island commerce,” said the president of the Nueva Esparta State Chamber of Commerce, José Gregorio Rodríguez.
Rodríguez pointed out that as of August 25, a new phase of this “commercial tourism” operation will begin, since an air freighter with the capacity to transport 20 tons of cargo from Isla Margarita to Havana will be incorporated.
“This will allow Cuban tourists to increase purchases here, which have been limited by the capacity of the plane. Of course, that comes to strengthen the economy of our state Nueva Esparta, it comes to be a bit more than the other things that we are trying to promote. We are close to receiving tourists from other destinations as well,” Rodríguez said.
Yulier Ávila, commercial manager of the GTN travel agency, stressed that in this new phase of the operation, the intention is to continue increasing the number of passengers. “With this cargo operation, it will be making it easier for us to bring more passengers, because we can cover the capacity of the 130-passenger plane, which until now we had to sell only half due to luggage. In addition, now we will be able to take other effects of greater volume, of greater weight that were not within what we could take to Cuba. We are talking about household appliances from the entire white line system, electric motorcycles and other larger equipment,” said Ávila.
Ávila said that tourists who visit Isla Margarita from Cuba, in addition to doing their shopping, also come to see the natural benefits and other attractions of the Coche and Cubagua islands.
“Most of the people who come are tourists who come to see the destination. They come to Margarita and from here also to other states of Venezuela. And they also come to do their shopping and cover a group of personal needs for effects that are deficient in our country,” Ávila explained without detailing what Cubans carry that is deficient in Venezuela.
For this Tuesday, August 22, the first Margarita-Cuba Commercial Fair will be taking place, which will take place in the lobby of the suite tower of the Hotel Venetur Margarita, from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. This fair will be conditioned as a business space for the exhibition and promotion of the products that are inserted in the framework of the Commercial Tourism operation, which is maintained successfully between both destinations.
Through this initiative we want to promote the approach and direct negotiation of distributors, merchants and formal entrepreneurs from Isla Margarita with travelers from Havana and from Santiago de Cuba, whose purpose of visit is the purchase of merchandise.
The items that will be exhibited at this fair are: household appliances, white goods, hardware items, food, clothing and footwear, trinkets, electric motorcycles, bicycles, luggage, power plants, lighting materials, OTC medicines, hygiene items and beauty, among others.
last february it transpired that in the previous 12 months More than 5,000 Cubans had traveled to Isla Margarita, in Venezuela, for shopping tourism. The Cuba-Venezuela “charter operation” began in March 2022 and connects Havana with the Venezuelan city of Porlamar, in the island state of Nueva Esparta, to which Isla Margarita belongs.
The vice president of the Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and Production of Venezuela (Fedecámaras) of Nueva Esparta state, Gabriel Briceño, said that the commercial union verified the spending of Cubans in Margarita and highlighted that each one spends around 4,000 dollars during your visit.
FOUNTAIN: diariodecuba.com
