• Submitted by: manso
• Travel and Tourism
• 08 / 03 / 2010

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A Spanish startup company picked Havana as home port for a cruise ship this winter season.

The 800-passenger M/V Gemini, operated by Happy Cruises, will offer weekly “Treasures of the Caribbean” tours beginning Nov. 13 through May, according to the Website of the Cuban tourism ministry. Stops include Cozumel in Mexico, Grand Cayman Island and Isla Paraiso in Cuba.

Passengers will be flown in from Madrid.

Happy Cruises is a division of upstart Quail Travel Group. Quail was founded by three Spanish tourism entrepreneurs, including Angel Nemesio Prieto, Javier Gómez Navarro, a former minister of trade and tourism and current chairman of the Spanish chambers of commerce, and Antonio Fernández, general director of Corporación Ahorro. Brazilian tour operator CVC is a major shareholder.

The Cuban cruise market has been hampered by the U.S. embargo. The world’s three largest cruise companies are based in Miami; European cruise companies planning to use Havana as a home port were repeatedly bought by U.S.-based competitors, thus ending their Cuban plans.

Source:www.cubastandard.com