CUBA can be the perfect destination for Arab tourists. It has lots to offer, such as pictur-esque sandy beaches with crystal clear, blue waters, as also many historical sites, and most of all, friendly people,” said the Ambassador

of Cuba to Qatar HE Ernesto D Plasencia Escalante, in a conversation with Qatar Tribune recently.

Cuba is all set to receive 3 million tourists from all around the world during the current year, stated Escalante. “We will be honoured to receive visitors from Qatar as well, as we are in a process of working on a governmental level to increase cooperation be-tween the two countries in the sector of tourism and various other fields such biotechnology and medi-cine,” the envoy said.

Cuba boasts of availability of 61,200 rooms of in-ternational standard available, out of which over 65 per cent are with four to five-star facilities. Cuba is very well connected to the world with its 10 interna-tional airports which receive flights from 36 differ-ent airlines from 56 countries.

“It is my dream to have Qatar Airways fly direct ly to Cuba, for which we are working and hopefully could have it soon, which will give a big boost to the tourism between the two countries,” opined Esca-lante.

Though a career diplomat, HE Escalante is also a person with profound ideas and exceptional oratori-cal skill. As a child, he was an obsessive student, who wanted to avail of the full benefit of free education provided in his country.

“Right from young age, I was actively involved in sports and outdoor activities such as baseball. Besides being a passionate baseball player, I was also green belt in judo,” Escalante said while talk-ing about his youth. His career as a diplomat was launched in 1996 when he joined Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“I always feel an outlandish sense of urgency to utilise every moment that I had at my disposal in the best possible way. Speaking in the capacity of an of-ficial person holding a diplomatic post, I always find myself defending the principles of my country, Cuba, which were laid by our visionary leaders after the revolution,” said the envoy.

“I was majorly assigned to work in the MENA re-gion. I had an opportunity to work in Syria and vis-ited Lebanon and Jordan many times,” Besides, he has also served in Libya, Egypt and Algeria.

“Later, for five long winters I was posted in Washington. Coming from warm Cuba, I am in the habit of counting years in terms of winters. It is usu-ally difficult for me to deal with winters but even more difficult to deal with the US government,” he said smiling.

“With conviction I can say, a diplomat is a person who belongs to the world and like a sponge he/she absorbs little pieces of culture wherever he gets an opportunity to live,” he added.

“I am immensely obsessed by the culture of the

Middle East and the food that is eaten in and around this region. I like the way Arabs eat from a common dish, which fosters a community feeling, which is uncommon in Cuba, at least.”

“The Middle East has been the cradle of cultures. It is unfortunate that the real Arabs are not those shown by the press,” he said referring to what is go-ing on in Syria and Iraq.

“Arab culture, in sharp contrast, is very frank, open and modest. It overflows with unparalleled hospitality. Syria has 5,000 years of history whereas the culture of Egypt and Phoenicians are old as well with history that dates back thousands of years.” “I personally have learned a lot while living in this area and have also made some lasting friends. We Cubans likewise are friendly people and we believe in making friends, not enemies,” said Escalante. We may not be on friendly terms with the US government but we always welcome American citizens to Cuba. Cubans love everyone, even Americans. We have many things in common with American people like baseball, music and many other things.

“The revolution has done lot of good things dur-ing these 56 years. We have free education, universal healthcare system…social security too, has done won-ders. We may not be rich but we have no poor people. We have no child without a school and have no child without healthcare coverage,” HE Escalante said.

Stressing on the developments in his country, he said, “Free education has been the cornerstone of the Cuban revolution, which has generated abundant hu-man resources for the country, so that we can send our technicians and professionals to help other peo-ple. The Cuban hospital in Dukhan is a good symbol of friendship with Qatar. We are exporting solidarity and love.

He spoke about his personal and professional ex-periences as he worked in various countries across the MENA region. “My life has been a very challeng-ing one as I am always involved in things which as a diplomat are part of my duty. I try not to lose a minute doing something which is of no consequence. That is my basic endeavour, as I told you in the beginning,” the diplomat said.

But if he does have free time, what does he do with it? Reading occupies most of his time. “I read just about anything. I like to cook; the trait which I have inherited from my father. I managed to pick up a few skills while assisting him. I like to go out with the family and visit historic sites or museums to know more about culture. Other than this, I love walking for health.

“As a country, I love to be in Syria, which for me is like a museum in itself. From the Roman ruins to Krak des Chevaliers, it is like a textbook of history. Other than that Lebanon and Jordan are interesting as well, with so much to see and marvel at.

“In Africa, Egypt is fascinating, as I remember when I first went to Giza and I touched the pyramid I had a uncanny feeling that someone must have lift-ed this boulder, lived, talked, loved, prayed, fought 3000 or 4000 years before me.

“It also makes you feel how tiny we are, where nothing is as important as the ideas which live on through the centuries,” he said.

Talking on the issue of conflicts taking place in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, he said, “War is never a solution, because at the end of the day, it is the ci-vilians and the children who are the victims of the war, without even being actively involved in the fighting. It is a battle of ideas. We can kill a man but not the ideas”.

ARAB CULTURE OVERFLOWS WITH HOSPITALITY: CUBAN ENVOY

Ambassador of Cuba HE Ernesto D Plasencia Escalante

03Thursday, October 9, 2014

Revelling in the highs and lows of the hospitality industry

I CELEBRATED the 15th anniver-sary of my existence in the Middle East only recently. From the home of watches, banks, mountains, chocolates and cheese to the land

of camel and sands, it has been a won-derful journey so far,” said Swiss ex-patriate Christoph K. Franzen, who is the General Manager of Grand Hyatt Doha, during an interview with Qatar

Tribune recently.He has been a suc-

cessful hotelier for many years, managing hotel

properties all around this region, dropping

anchor in Doha in January 2013.

Narrating his success sto-

ry, Franzen said, “I was b r o u g h t up in a very beau-tiful resort

village of

Switzerland called Zermatte of which I am also an official ambassador of tourism, and I am very proud of it.”

Growing up in a family where his father ran a successful family hotel, Franzen was well aware of the pros and cons of the hotel business. “As I was raised around hotels, it was very natural for me to join the family pro-fession. I did that by starting my ca-reer in a traditional way, by joining as an apprentice chef in the kitchen,” he said. He later graduated from the ho-tel school and joined Hyatt group.

Why did Franzen prefer to join a global chain like Hyatt rather than furthering his family business? He replied, “From the very start, I had aspired for travelling outside my own country, in order to learn about other cultures and to know how people live in the rest of the world. This urge led me to work for international brand such as Hyatt, where it is much easier to expand your horizon globally.”

The flipside of the profession is that it is too demanding and chal-

lenging. In his words, “Our business is not easy one to work in. As a mat-ter of fact, because of our odd working hours, when we are working, everyone else is having leisure and vice-versa. It is not uncommon in the hotel profes-sion to keep odd hours like in eve-nings or on the weekends or even on public holidays.”

For many, it is not easy to sac-rifice the best time in their life in exchange for a profession. “The majority of my friends in the ho-tel school who went to kitchen and did apprenticeship with me are not in the kitchen anymore. Down the line, lots of people get lost or change trades, as it is not an easy field to stay in for a very long time,” he add-ed.

How come he managed to stay in that long? “I managed to turn all the disadvantages of my profession to my advantage. When I am off-du-ty, most people are working, which means most of the public places are empty. So you can go skiing or

shopping without getting stuck in a crowd,” he said, smiling as he ex-plained.

During his time spent in the Mid-dle East, Franzen was able to de-velop new pastimes such as his love for golf and motorcycling. “You can never get an opportunity like this to work with people from dozens of na-tionalities and chance to learn from one another about culture, practices and behaviours,” he said.

“In addition, I consider myself lucky to have my wife also from the same professional background. She understands and supports me in every way she can. There is no nag-ging at each other,” he said.

“But at the same time, after stay-ing around hotels for a long time and having an access to the privileg-es of the hotel, I always tell my wife to make sure that our two children don’t lose touch with the real world, because if we have to pay for all the services that are provided, we may not be able to afford them,” he said.

Christoph K. Franzen

Some of the tourist hot spots in Cuba.

Reports by Maneesh Bakshi. For events and press releases email qatar.editor@gmail.com or call (974) 44422077.

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