Club Med to Open Resort in Cuba

Club Med plans to open its first resort in Cuba, a luxury beach-side village about 90 miles east of Havana. The resort, to be called Club Med-Varadero, is under construction on the country’s north coast, near a nature reserve.

Scheduled to open in November, in time for the 1996-’97 tourist season, it will have 319 rooms in its first stage and may add 197 more rooms the following year. U.S. citizens are currently virtually prohibited from traveling to Cuba by Washington’s 33-year-old embargo on trade and financial dealings with Fidel Castro’s government.

The resort is being built by Gaviota, a Cuban tourism agency, but will be run by Club Med. Officials from Gaviota and Club Med’s parent company, the French Club Mediterranee SA, signed an agreement last Sunday but declined to discuss financial arrangements.

This won’t be Club Med’s first communist locale. There’s been one in Bulgaria and another in Romania. In December, the chain announced plans to open in China.

In Cuba, Club Med hopes to attract tourists from Canada, Europe and South America.