It has been a long time since Fidel Castro, the Cuban Communist revolutionary, played a few strokes of golf with his radical counterpart Che Guevara, and fifty years since the former ordered all golf courses to be shut down in the country as the game is supposedly a hobby of the elites.
However, times have changed and the island of Cuba has decided to cater to the demand of affluent tourists rather than comply with the late president's orders. Cuba's government has approved a luxury golf course project, which will be designed by golfing legend, Tony Jacklin.
Currently, Cuba has only two golf courses, one in its capital Havana and one in the town of Varadero. However, the new project will be the first one-of-its-kind golf course development in the island.
According to Property Wire, the golf course will be an 18 'hole' stretch, spread across 170 hectares of the Caribbean coastal area. The golf course will be a part of the Carbonerra Club, plans of which were first proposed by a British firm, Essencia. The club will also include a residential area comprising of 650 apartments and villas set in a gated community. It will also have an exclusive hotel, a country club with spa and tennis courts and a yacht club too. Construction on the project will begin in 2014.
Essencia and the the Cuban government will be developing the project in a joint venture, which will cost around $350 million. Earlier in May, Essencia confirmed that a formal deal had been sealed with the government of Cuba. The company also said that it has been working on the project for seven long years and is really excited about the development, reports BBC News.
Moreover, Carbonerra is not the only planned project. More luxury resort development plans with Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese investors are also in the anvil.
The sudden interest in building luxury resorts and golf courses is attributed to Cuba's efforts to attract international tourists in large numbers to make the island a major tourist destination and improve its economy.
According to a feature at Worldcrunch.com, 16 tourism projects have been approved, most of which are focused on infrastructure construction 'geared toward luxury tourism such as golf courses, homes and marinas'.
"The Cuban government is doing all it can to attract more international visitors with an ambitious plan that includes increasing hotel capacity from 65,000 to 85,000 rooms. Cuba is also exploring novel tourism avenues, including a real-estate and golf course project, marinas, ecotourism, nature and adventure tourism and the promotion of their ten UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, among others," the feature reads.
More recently in January, Cuba also introduced some new rules for its citizens that would allow them to travel abroad with a valid visa and passport, just like any other democratic country.
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