Cubans get right to use hotels
Cubans were today celebrating the removal of yet another petty restriction on their lives in the wake of Fidel Castro giving up the reins of power.
His brother and new President Raul lifted a ban on Cubans staying at hotels previously reserved for foreigners.
Cuban nationals will also be allowed to pay to enjoy other hotel services, including gyms.
Employees at the Nacional, Valencia and Maria Isabel hotels in Havana said Ministry of Tourism officials told them Cubans were allowed to stay in hotels across the island from midnight tonight.
Like other guests, they will be charged in convertible pesos worth 24 times the regular pesos earned by state employees.
Some hotels scheduled meetings with all staff members to discuss the changes, and officials said new rules will also allow Cubans to rent cars at state-run agencies for the first time.
Last week Cuba allowed ordinary people to buy mobile phones, which only foreigners and key officials in the communist government were previously allowed.
A resolution from the Interior Commerce Ministry also authorised the general sale of computers, microwaves and DVD players, items which had only been sold to companies and foreigners.
Many Cubans are too poor to enjoy the lifting of restrictions. The government controls well over 90% of the economy and the average monthly state salary is just 408 pesos, a little less than £10.
But much of the population has access to convertible pesos, either through jobs in tourism or with foreign firms or cash sent by relatives living in the US. They will suddenly have a host of new ways to spend their money.
Tourism generates more than £1bn annually and official restrictions that banned all Cubans, even those who could afford it, from enjoying beach resorts and luxury hotels were an especially sore point for many on the island since the government began encouraging foreign tourism en masse in the early 1990s.
Since taking power from his ailing, 81-year-old brother on February 24, Raul Castro, 76, has pledged to make improving Cubans’ everyday life a priority and undo “excessive restrictions” on society and the economy.
