After suggesting a regional ‘Schengen’, García Granda proposes taking advantage of the World Cup

14ymedio, Madrid, 2 July 2025 — Juan Carlos García Granda, Minister of Tourism, does not lack ideas; the problem is to concretize them. His Latin American tour has already left a proposal in Colombia, where he launched the suggestion of creating a regional common visa area similar to the European Schengen and now he has raised another idea: to create a joint promotion with Mexico with soccer (football) as its engine.
This idea slipped into an interview with El Sol de México in which, after García Granda talked about working with Claudia Sheinbaum’s government to reactivate sunken Cuban tourism, the journalist asked him if there is any tangible agreement. “We aren’t talking about agreements yet. We are talking about the willingness to agree to do many things, such as mutual tourism promotion for the football world cup that will take place next year. We want to bring many Mexicans to Cuba,” the minister replied.
This is how the article ends, without it being clear what Cuba has to do with a sports event that takes place in 2026 with a triple venue: the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is also not understood how the proposal to attract Mexican travelers to Cuba appears in this context, when thousands of sports fans from all over the world will want to go to one of the three North American countries that hosts the most important international football competition in the world.
“We are defending and trying to justify multi-destination tourism. We are beginning to discuss it as a way of doing a lot of good for the region of the Americas”
García Granda, who had told El País of his idea for a Latin American Schengen, was more general this time. “We are defending and trying to justify multi-destination tourism. We are beginning to discuss it as a way of doing a lot of good for the region of the Americas,” says the minister, eager to highlight a twinning with the region that has taken him these weeks to Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. Although his meetings have been with entrepreneurs in the field, it is symptomatic that all three are countries with governments in ideological harmony with Havana.
“I talk about Cuba, but really when you visit the countries of Latin America you can see that we have many similarities. We are unique people, hospitable, with a lot of culture, but at the same time we have great possibilities because we are authentic. We all have those common qualities but we do it each in its own way, and instead of dividing us, this can unite and add to us,” he insisted.
When García Granda referred to Europe as a model, he did not take into account that beyond a common culture there is political unity among the majority of countries in the Common European Area (EU) and agreements for other members to be part of it, a feature that is not present in Latin America.
The Cuban minister admitted, to questions from the journalist, that the island is far from recovering the tourism figures it once reached, with 4.8 million international travelers in 2018 as a record. “Tourism at the moment is going through a rather difficult situation, which is multifactorial, but what we have done is analyze the causes and drawn up strategies and actions to solve the problems, and being here is proof of it,” he said, faced with the prospect of not reaching the official target of 2.6 million foreign visitors in 2025.
Cuba’s traditional markets, with Europe in the lead, have suffered a huge setback, which has led the island authorities to try fishing in other waters. The initial bet, which began in the best years of the sector, was Russia. But the Russians abandoned the destination for other areas of the Caribbean with similar beaches and greater abundance, and did so before the worst of the pandemic. Only the war in Ukraine, which marginalized Russian citizens by sanctions against their government, allowed Cuba to regain ground, but the prosperity soon faltered. After a promising 2024 in which it reached 185,000 travelers from Russia, so far this year the numbers have been reduced by half.
Cuba was already trying to gain the Chinese market, very desired for its immensity, as well as for the important spending by its people when they travel outside their borders. Now Cuba’s greatest hope is Latin America, especially Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Brazil, although only the first three bring relevant numbers of tourists to the Cuban market.
Cuba was already trying to gain the Chinese market, very desired for its immensity, as well as for the important spending by its people when they travel outside their borders
García Granda points out in the interview that Mexico has “a lot to contribute” and says that it is counting on its ally, President Sheinbaum. “Together, with the Mexican government, we could have a lot of support in promotion, advertising. We could also do things together to sell attributes of both countries as part of a service, a vacation, because we are bringing people from China and Russia, and these people need unique experiences after traveling so far. They want to experience something unique,” he persisted.
However, the most striking thing in this conversation has been his analysis of how Cuba faces the US sanctions, which have again taken center stage by insisting on the new memorandum of Donald Trump in the audit of travel from that country to the island, as he ordered in 2017. “Cuba does have a large part of its impact due to the intentional measures generated by the blockade, but we make an assessment of these impacts and do not cry in a corner but try to turn them into challenges,” he said. On the same day, the official press is filled with complaints about the “inhuman measures” of the United States.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.