cuba The Waiting Game

Late last month, Bloomberg breathlessly reported that Cuba is "seeking investment partners for 10 golf courses and luxury hotels aimed at Americans."

Fantastic news, right? After all, it's not every day that a nation with so much development potential talks excitedly about building an entire parade of golf courses, not to mention the villas, marinas, and luxury hotels that will inevitably accompany them.

Before you start hyperventilating, though, take note: We've heard this story before -- many times before. When it comes to golf, Cuba's tourism officials are all talk and no action.

People have been playing golf in Cuba since the 1930s, when the DuPonts built a nine-hole course at their vacation home in Varadero, a town along the island’s northern coast. Another nine-hole track opened in Havana in the 1950s, and in the late 1990s a government-controlled entity, Palmares S.A., replaced the DuPonts' course with an 18-hole, Les Furber-designed layout, Varadero Golf Club.

That's the complete inventory of golf courses in Cuba -- a total of 27 holes in a country the size of Pennsylvania.

Sis. Boom. Bah.

Incidentally, those 27 holes are more than enough to satisfy the local demand. According to Golf magazine, Cuba has a measly 120 golfers of its own.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that, if Cuba had just a few crowd-attracting, celebrity-designed golf courses, its tourism numbers would be off the charts.

I'm not so sure. The fact is, tourists have been visiting Cuba in relatively large numbers for years, despite the island's lack of golf opportunities. In the same Bloomberg story that I referenced earlier, Cuba's tourism officials said that 2.4 million vacationers visited the island in 2009, an increase of 3.5 percent over 2008.

Let's put Cuba's tourism business in perspective. In 2009, Cuba attracted more vacationers than the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. In fact, it attracted more tourists than any nation in the Caribbean except the Dominican Republic.

I'm sure I don't need to mention it, but all those other islands have plenty of golf courses to draw crowds. Cuba has developed a respectable tourism industry without even one U.S.-style golf resort.

And there's the rub. I'm wondering exactly how committed Cuba is to golf development. When the government wanted to build a golf course in Varadero, Palmares got it done. Something like 12 years have since passed, and all the while Cuba has been yapping incessantly about building more golf courses. Why hasn't it delivered?

Could it be that Cuba doesn't intend to build any golf courses until the United States lifts its prohibition on travel to the forbidden nation?

Cuba's tourism ministers will tell you that they've been working diligently on golf development. For the better part of a decade, they'll say, they've been in partnership with a North Vancouver-based company, Leisure Canada, on a resort community called Jibacoa.

If it's ever built, and I have my doubts, Jibacoa will take shape on a site with three miles of waterfront near Santa Cruz del Norte, about 45 miles east of Havana. It’s planned to have 600 bungalows and villas, a few hotels (1,400 total rooms), several secluded “pocket” beaches, and a pair of championship-length golf courses.

Where do Leisure Canada's development plans stand? The company recently said that it hopes to break ground on Jibacoa in three to five years.

Of course, it said the same thing three to five years ago.

The Cubans are also working with a British company, Esencia Hotels & Resorts, on a 375-acre resort community near Varadero. Carbonera Country Club Resort, as it’s being called, is supposed to consist of houses, a 150-room hotel, a spa, and an 18-hole golf course.

According to the Hotel Report, Esencia is also looking for sites near Varadero where it could build another golf resort, perhaps two.

So many plans, so little to show for them.

Maybe out of frustration at working with unproductive private-sector partners, Cuba's tourism officials recently teamed up with a government-owned entity from Vietnam, Hanoi-based Housing & Urban Development Corporation, to do some golf development within a short drive of Havana.

There are conflicting reports about what the partners have in mind. Some reports say they’ll build a single 750- to 1,000-acre resort with two golf courses, several hotels, a trade center, and an entertainment area. Other reports say that two resorts are in the works, each of them to take shape within 20 miles of Havana.

Of course, it's possible that the partners haven't yet settled on a plan. No hurry. In Cuba, there always seems to be world enough and time.

LeisureCanada.com, EsenciaHotelsAndResorts.com