Havana (AFP)

Foreign tourists arriving in Cuba will be subjected to a coronavirus test, will only be able to go to certain beach hotels and will not have access to Havana when the island reopens its borders, probably not before August.

The island will begin "in the middle of next week, or the beginning of the following one" a progressive resumption of tourism, trade and public transport, stopped since the end of March, announced Thursday the socialist president Miguel Diaz-Canel.

Regarding tourism, the country's economic engine, the plan is to authorize only local tourism first, then, when the borders reopen, to welcome foreign travelers in the all-inclusive hotels of "cayos", small paradise islands bordering Cuba.

The rest of the country will be temporarily reserved for Cubans and permanent foreign residents.

Capital with old-fashioned charm, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, it is in "Havana that the last phase of the pandemic is concentrated, so things will take a little more time there," warned Miguel Diaz-Canel.

But she suffers economically from this closure to the world.

Deprived of tourism currencies (3.3 billion dollars in 2018), Cuba, which imports 80% of what it consumes, had to drastically reduce its imports in the first quarter by 75%.

- Mandatory mask -

"Unlike other countries, the coronavirus arrived in Cuba when Cuba was already in crisis" due to the collapse of its main partner, Venezuela, and a strengthening of American sanctions, underlines the economist Omar Everleny Pérez.

And "tourism, which was a good engine, has been at zero for three months".

The already recurring queues are getting longer as shortages get worse, while the fledgling private sector, mainly present in catering and renting rooms to tourists, is hit hard.

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and analysis unit affiliated with the English weekly The Economist, the country's GDP will drop by 8.3% this year.

The return to normal, "a new normal" according to Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, will be in three phases, with the immediate maintenance of the obligation of the mask in the street.

"The restrictions on entering and leaving the country are maintained. The ban on commercial flights will be maintained during the first and second phases," he said.

No date for the resumption of international commercial flights has been communicated, but according to information published by the Cuban aeronautics industry, it is not scheduled before August 1.

- "Take care of yourself" -

When the borders reopen, foreign tourists will be tested on arrival and their temperature taken at the airport, then regularly at the hotel.

Epidemiological surveillance will be conducted in hotels, which "will not open at 100% of their capacity", like restaurants, said Mr. Marrero.

In the Caribbean region, very dependent on tourism, others have taken the lead, as noted Monday economist Pedro Monreal on Twitter: "Cancun and the other beaches on the Caribbean side in Mexico, which are among the main competitors of Cuba , have resumed their activities today ".

Several islands have reopened their doors to tourists or will do so in July, such as Jamaica or the Dominican Republic.

Cuba therefore does not want to be outdone.

On Wednesday, the Spanish group Melia published a promotional video showing its employees disinfecting every corner of its hotels in Cuba and promising that tourists would be "safe" there.

Same reassuring tone from the Cubanacan state tourism company on Twitter: "our group has strengthened its hygiene and sanitary standards protocols with more than 150 measures, essential for the reopening of facilities".

Among these measures: the installation of plastic walls at the reception of hotels, more spaced tables in restaurants, dispensers of hydroalcoholic gel at the entrance of elevators.

The new advertising campaign of the Ministry of Tourism is based on a slogan: "Cuidate" (Take care of yourself).

© 2020 AFP